child labor cause consequence and cure.pdfVIP

Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XXXVII September 1999 pp. 1083–1119 Basu: Child Labor: Cause, Consequence, and Cure Child Labor: Cause, Consequence, and Cure, with Remarks on International Labor Standards 1 KAUSHIK BASU 1. Introduction rary times, the incidence of child labor is very high in Third World countries, and CCORDING TO THE Bureau of Statis- it has been that way for several decades Atics of the International Labor Or- now. ganization, in 1995 at least 120 million of What has increased is the awareness the world’s children between the ages of of and concern for children who work as five and fourteen years did full-time, laborers. This is caused, in part, by the paid work ILO 1996; Kebebew Ashagrie increasing globalization of the world, 1998 . Many of them worked under haz- which has brought not only more infor- ardous and unhygienic conditions and for mation about the condition of labor in more than ten hours a day. This is not a different nations to academics and ac- new problem. In different parts of the tivists the world over, but also goods world, at different stages of history, the produced by children in faraway lands laboring child has been a part of eco- into the hands of consumers in high-in- nomic life. In particular, children have come countries. This has, in turn, worked in large numbers in factories brought two very different kinds of peo- from the time of the industrial revolu- ple onto the same platform—individuals tion in Europe and from the mid-nine- who are genuinely concerned about the teenth century in America. In contempo- plight of children in poor countries, and those who comprise the forces of pro- 1 Cornell University. For useful comments and tectionism in developed countries. The sugges