Child labour in Latin America: Policy and evidence

Over the past decade child labour practices in developing countries and thier implications for international trade have received increasing attention on the international agenda. Pursuant to these concerns, many countries in the Western Hemisphere have adopted programmes designed to discourage the worst child labour practices and to provide families and communities with incentives to reduce child labour and increase educational attainment. Given the increased attention to child labour and the threat of trade sanctions for weak child labour protections, it is worth evaluating the policies that have been adopted with the intent of improving working conditions for children. There is a growing empirical literature concerning the causes and consequences of child labour. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate these policy initiatives in light of the newly emerging empirical evidence. We will focus in particular on programmes to address child labour practices in Latin America and attempt to evaluate these programmes given the empirical evidence concerning the primary determinants of when and why children work. In the following section we briefly review some recent legislative action and international agreements that are designed to pressure developing countries to improve child labour practices. We then turn to the empirical evidence concerning the determinants of child labour and thier implications for the types of policies that are likely to influence household decision-making in a manner that reduces the incidence of child labour and increases educational attainment. We then discuss the likely effectiveness of some of the recent initiatives targetting child labour in the Western Hemisphere. Conclusions follow.