Child labour and global value chains

We explore the relationship between the internationalisation of production through Global Value Chains and child labour at the sector level, using data from 26 low- and middle-income countries. We find that sectors with stronger participation in foreign markets by exporting inputs to firms that will process them and export them to third countries (forward linkages) exhibit less child labour. However, other forms of participation in foreign markets through gross exports or exports of goods that embed foreign value-added (backward linkages) are not associated with lower levels of child labour.