The effects of expanding worker rights to children☆

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lakdawala, Leah K.; Heredia, Diana Martinez; Vera-Cossio, Diego
• 署名单位: Wake Forest University; University of California System; University of California San Diego; Inter-American Development Bank
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103389
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: child labor; Child labor policy; Worker rights and protections; labor regulation

摘要

One out of two working children worldwide works in hazardous conditions. We study the effects of a law that introduced benefits and protections for child workers and temporarily lowered the de facto legal working age from 14 to 10 in Bolivia. We employ a difference-in-discontinuity approach that exploits the variation in the law's application to different age groups. Work decreased for children under 14, whose work was newly legalized and regulated under the law, particularly in areas with a higher threat of inspections. The effects disappear after the law is reversed. We do not find evidence of improvements in work safety. Thus, the effects do not appear to be driven by increased hiring costs to ensure worker safety. Instead, the effects appear to be driven by a reduction in the most visible forms of child work, suggesting that firms and parents (households) may have reduced employment of young children to minimize the risk of being subject to legal and social sanctions.