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Research ArticleArticles

How Does Child Labor Affect the Demand for Adult Labor?

Evidence from Rural Mexico

Kirk B. Doran
Journal of Human Resources, July 2013, 48 (3) 702-735; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.48.3.702
Kirk B. Doran
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Abstract

Do employers substitute adults for children, or do they treat them as complements? Using data from a Mexican schooling experiment, I find that decreasing child farmwork is accompanied by increasing adult labor demand. This increase was not caused by treatment money reaching farm employers: there were no significant increases in harvest prices and quantities, nonlabor inputs, or nonfarm labor supply. Furthermore, coordinated movements in price and quantity can distinguish this increase in demand from changes in supply induced by the treatment’s income effects. Thus, declining child supply caused increasing adult demand: employers substituted adults for children.

  • Received November 2011.
  • Accepted August 2012.
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Journal of Human Resources: 48 (3)
Journal of Human Resources
Vol. 48, Issue 3
1 Jul 2013
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How Does Child Labor Affect the Demand for Adult Labor?
Kirk B. Doran
Journal of Human Resources Jul 2013, 48 (3) 702-735; DOI: 10.3368/jhr.48.3.702

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How Does Child Labor Affect the Demand for Adult Labor?
Kirk B. Doran
Journal of Human Resources Jul 2013, 48 (3) 702-735; DOI: 10.3368/jhr.48.3.702
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  • Article
    • Abstract
    • I. Introduction
    • II. Conceptual Framework and Identification Strategy
    • III. Data
    • IV. Did the Experiment Reduce the Supply of Child Labor?
    • V. Was there an Increase in the Demand for Adult Labor?
    • VI. Comparison of the Size of the Effects
    • VII. Did the Reduction in Child Labor Cause the Increase in the Demand for Adult Labor?
    • VIII. Interpretation of Results
    • IX. Conclusions
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
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