Child Labor in the World Polity: Decline and Persistence, 1980-2000

Abstract

From 1980 to 2000, child labor rates across the world fell by more than a quarter. Much of the explanation for this decrease resides in development processes broadly associated with the demographic transition. Net of these internal dynamics, however, globalization may also have played a role. Previous studies have examined the effect of trade and investment flows on child labor rates. However, the impact of cultural models spread by world polity institutions has yet to be examined. In this study, I argue that international organizations have confronted child labor practices, diffusing a “labor-to-schooling” model of child development. Analyzing an unbalanced dataset with 428 observations from 116 states across four waves during the 1980–2000 period, I assess the impact of economic and cultural globalization on a state's child labor rate using random effects tobit models. Net of a country's development experience, I find that foreign investment exerts a small, positive effect on child labor, while international organizations exert a larger negative effect. These results are robust to a number of specifications, including first-difference models that restrict attention to longitudinal variation.