Two hundred and eighteen million children work in the world today. Seventy percent are in activities classified as child labor under local laws. While in policy circles child labor is often viewed as a rights issue, it is also an economic issue. Working children are both a cause and a consequence of a lack of economic development. Widespread child employment dampers future economic growth through its negative impact on child development and depresses current growth by reducing unskilled wages and discouraging the adoption of skill-intensive technologies. Child employment also appears to result from a lack of economic growth. Rising incomes are associated with improvements in the family’s ability to triage economic shocks without child labor, shifts in production to outside of the home, and greater demand for education and leisure. These factors all lead to declines in the economic activity of children.
Child Labor and Economic Development
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