Is There a Child Labor Trap? Intergenerational Persistence of Child Labor in Brazil

Abstract

This article examines the intergenerational persistence of child labor empirically by looking at household survey data from Brazil. Previous empirical work on child labor has focused primarily on isolating the determinants of child labor using survey data. We take a different approach by asking “Does the child labor status of parents affect the child labor incidence of their children?” We look at this question in two ways. Our working assumption is that financial need creates this generational link but we also ask if there exists an intergenerational link over and above that which is transmitted through the production of income (perhaps through norms). We find strong evidence that this link exists and that it appears to persist even when income is held constant. Moreover we find that children who did not work as child laborers command higher salaries later in life which suggests that the potential human capital gains through apprenticeship as children are outweighed by the human capital gains children receive through schooling. (excerpt)