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Minimum age regulation and child labor: New evidence from Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier BARGAIN
  • Delphine BOUTIN

    (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International(CERDI))

Abstract
We suggest new evidence on minimum age regulations using a natural experiment. In 1998, a constitutional reform has changed the minimum working age from 14 to 16 in Brazil. The reform was the legislative counterpart of a broad set of measures taken by a government strongly committed to fighting child labor. We document the fact that enforcement and compliance may have been heterogeneous across regions and job types. The setting allows improving upon past approaches based on the comparison of employment rates of children below and above the minimum age. Precisely, we observe 14-year old children the year after the reform and exploit discontinuous treatment depending on their birthdate (only those who turned 14 after mid-December 1998 are banned). Regression discontinuity and difference-in-discontinuity designs show no effect of the ban overall, nor a reallocation towards less visible activities, or a substitution of labor within families. Importantly, however, we find a significant drop in child labor among those with highest chances of compliance, namely children in visible activities and in regions characterized with an above-average intensity of labor inspections. We provide power calculation and extensive sensitivity checks.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier BARGAIN & Delphine BOUTIN, 2017. "Minimum age regulation and child labor: New evidence from Brazil," Working Papers 201718, CERDI.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1893
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Lakdawala, Leah K. & Martínez Heredia, Diana & Vera-Cossio, Diego A., 2023. "The Impact of Expanding Worker Rights to Informal Workers Evidence from Child Labor Legislation," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12705, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. Dimova, Ralitza, 2021. "The Political Economy of Child Labor," GLO Discussion Paper Series 816, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Mahnaz Muhammad Ali & Mariam Abbas Soharwardi, 2022. "Economic Cost of Education and Behavior of Parents towards Child Labor," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 4(1), pages 07-13.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child Labor; Ban; Minimum working age; Brazil; Regression discontinuity; Difference in discontinuity.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J88 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Public Policy
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies

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