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           THE WORLD BANK ECONOMIC REVIEW, VOL.            17,   NO.   2 145–146




   Child Labor and Development: An Introduction

                       Kaushik Basu and Zafiris Tzannatos


Long neglected by economists, child labor has experienced a sudden resurgence
of interest as a subject of research and analysis since the mid-1990s. This is
surprising at first glance, because the global incidence of child labor has been on
the decline for several decades now. What accounts for the increased interest?
One factor is the growing emphasis in the development literature on poverty
reduction, particularly among the most vulnerable sections of the population,
which includes children, especially working children. Simultaneously, with the
heightened recognition of the importance of human capital accumulation as a
catalyst—and perhaps even a prerequisite—for development, child labor is
viewed as a major impediment to economic progress.
   The recent academic interest is matched by the increasing prominence of
child labor in both national and international policy settings. This is manifested
in a series of international conventions, such as the U.N. Convention on the
Rights of the Child (1989), the International Labour Organization (ILO) Con-
vention 182 on Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor (1999), and the
U.N. Millennium Declaration (2000) with its emphasis on poverty reduction
and universal education. These three documents share a common concern for
banishing global poverty and investing in children.
   This international concern, enshrined in various conventions, has been mir-
rored by economists’ interest in globalization and its implications for poverty
eradication. The new research has dimmed some of the earlier optimism that
growth and globalization will automatically trickle down to the benefit of all.
Child labor is a prime example. Though its incidence has declined, children
continue to work in large numbers and for long hours, more so than should be
tolerable in this age of globalization and prosperity. This persistent search for new,
possibly specific solutions is now being facilitated by the increasing availability
of micro data, which enable the explicit formulation and testing of critical
propositions and policies. This should result in a more rigorous understanding
of intrahousehold allocation mechanisms, their interaction with market forces,
and the effect of these interactions on child labor.
   The articles in this issue of the World Bank Economic Review make a small
contribution to the growing debate on child labor. They are based on papers
presented at an international conference, ‘‘The Economics of Child Labour’’ in
Oslo in May 2002, sponsored by the ILO, the United Nations Children’s Fund
  DOI: 10.1093/wber/lhg019
  Ó 2003 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development /   THE WORLD BANK




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(UNICEF), and the World Bank and organized by Fafo, the Norwegian Institute
for Applied International Research. The volume provides an overview of the
issues (Kaushik Basu and Zafiris Tzannatos), gives a historical account of child
labor (Jane Humphries), and presents the normative and philosophical conun-
drums that surround the problem of child labor (Debra Satz).
   Four other articles consider various issues of direct policy or analytical
relevance to developing economies, individually and on a cross-country basis.
Sonia Bhalotra and Chris Heady analyze the paradoxical result that (with some
qualifications) child labor tends to be more frequent in wealthier rural families
of Ghana and Pakistan and examine the implications of this finding. Franc     ¸ ois
Bourguignon, Francisco Ferreira, and Phillippe Leite simulate the effect of the
Brazilian schooling subsidy program Bolsa Escola and a set of alternative
specifications of this kind of conditional cash transfer program on child labor,
poverty, and education. Arnab Basu and Nancy Chau tackle the specific issue of
child labor in situations of debt bondage, and Furio Rosati and Mariacristina
Rossi try to explain the joint determination of school attendance and hours of
work among rural children in Nicaragua and Pakistan. It is certainly more
helpful to know the determinants of the hours of child labor rather than of
child labor itself. Yet there was very little previous work on this topic.
   A noteworthy feature of this volume is that its genesis lies in the increasing
cooperation among international agencies. An aspect of this cooperation is the
creation of a joint facility for data collection, sharing, and analysis, which
enables researchers and policymakers to access a wealth of primary data and
information on child labor across the globe. This issue concludes with a short
note on the Understanding Children’s Work project under the common auspices
of ILO, UNICEF, and the World Bank.
   We hope that the research presented in this volume and the increasing
availability of statistical information will contribute to a better understanding
of child labor and to its eventual demise.