营养不良与童工

Malnutrition and Child Labor

Scandinavian Journal of Economics · 2005
被引 19
人大 A-ABS 3

中文导读

提出,在贫困社会中,家庭内部利他主义导致雇主提高成人工资以提升其生产力时,部分收益会外溢到子女身上;雇主为内部化这种外部性,会同时雇佣儿童,从而解释了童工现象与消费-生产力正相关并存的原因。

Abstract

Abstract In pre‐industrial and developing economies, it is common to find (i) entire families, including children, working together in family farms or urban factories; and (ii) a positive link between a person's consumption and her productivity. This paper argues that there is a natural reason for the concurrence of (i) and (ii). As a rule, households are characterized by intra‐household altruism: an increase in the income of an individual increases the consumption of all household members. Hence, when an employer pays an adult worker a high wage to enhance her productivity, part of it ends up augmenting her children's consumption and productivity. One way for the employer to prevent this leakage and internalize the externality is to employ the children as well. This explains the higher incidence of family labor in poor societies where (ii) is more likely to be true.

儿童劳动家庭劳动力营养-生产率关联代际外部性