O que conhecemos sobre o trabalho infantil? [What do we know about child labor?]

Interest in research and economic analysis related to child labor reappears in the literature around 1995, mainly due to a growing emphasis on the reduction of poverty and the accumulation of human capital to obtain economic development, which means that child labor is seen as an impediment to economic progress. Empirical analysis to find the causes, consequences and solutions for child labor are now being facilitated by the increase in the availability of high quality microdata and ease of obtaining computational data. Poverty, parents' education, family composition, gender of the head of the household, age parents started working and the household location are the most analyzed and important determinants to explain the allocation of the child's time to work. The most important social-economic consequences of child labor are related to the reduction in years of education, school performance, wages and health status. The objective of this study is to present a summary of what is known in the economic literature related to child labor and to indicate directions for future research.