Household Composition and the Response of Child Labor Supply to Product Market Integration : Evidence from Vietnam
Market integration raises the relative price of a community's export product. The author examines how the response of child labor supply to an increase in the relative price of a primary export product varies with a child's household comp...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/03/3168766/household-composition-response-child-labor-supply-product-market-integration-evidence-vietnam http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15628 |
| Summary: | Market integration raises the relative
price of a community's export product. The author
examines how the response of child labor supply to an
increase in the relative price of a primary export product
varies with a child's household composition. The
specific context for his study is the liberalization of rice
markets in Vietnam in the 1990s. Between 1993 and 1998,
Vietnam lifted export restrictions on rice, allowing the
domestic price to rise toward international levels, and
eliminated internal restrictions on the flow of rice between
regions of Vietnam. So, the relative price of rice increased
overall in Vietnam, but the degree of price change varied
across communities with the lifting of restrictions on
internal flows. The author finds that the response of child
labor supply to rice price increases is increasing the
amount of time children work. Thus, household composition
attributes that are associated with higher levels of child
labor are also associated with larger declines in child
labor with rice price increases. The results are consistent
with girls particularly benefiting from product market
integration because they work more than boys do. The results
suggest that economic factors associated with economic
reform may attenuate differences in the activities of
siblings that are typically associated with cultural
traditions and norms. |
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