THE SHORT AND LONG RUN IMPACT OF THE CHILD LABOUR AT THE MICRO FAMILY LEVEL: LESSONS FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract

Majority of articles on child labour are focused on the causes of it, probably for the reason that knowing the reasons behind the issue is necessary for defining legislative aims and objectives and tools to combat the problem. However, it is rare to find articles on the economic effects of the labour of children. Needless to say, without effectively understanding the economic effects, it is difficult to appreciate the full importance of the issue.According to Balotra and Heady (2001), South Asia is at the top in terms of number of children involved in child labour. Africa comes at a close second. Ashagrie (1998) gives excellent statistics, saying child labour prevalence is 21% in Asia. He goes on to compare Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America in terms of their commonalities such as average household income. This, in all areas, is very low.The aim of this article is to show, through a literature review, a well-defined overview of the current body of knowledge regarding child labour. The effects of child labour on the economy of a country can be divided into micro and macro levels, and the long and short term labour market consequences (Anker, 2000). For limitation of scope purposes, we will limit our discussion to the short and long term effects of child labour at the macro level labour market.