Does Globalization Increase Child Labor?

There is no empirical evidence that trade exposure per se increases child labor. As trade theory and household economics lead us to expect, the crosscountry evidence seems to indicate that trade reduces or, at worst, has no significant effect on child labor. Consistently with the theory, a comparatively well-educated labor force, and active social policies, appear to be conducive to a reduction in child labor. For countries with a largely uneducated workforce, the problem is not so much globalization, as not being allowed to take part in it.