A defense of compulsive measures against child labor

This research characterizes policies likely to trigger the onset of a growth-enhancing fertility transition, even for an economy with initially a low per capita income. The environment considered is one where children's time has an economic value, and schooling and child labor are the main competing claims on a child's time. Using a one-parent-family overlapping generations model, I argue that compulsive measures against child labor are justifiable as an integral part of an intervention that combines incentives and regulations in order to eliminate child labor. The analysis highlights fertility and child labor dynamics as shaped by the relative cost of children.