ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses to address the critically important question as to whether or not changes designed to rid society of child labor can be expected to increase unit production costs, thereby impairing the competitive position of affected economies. In other words, it is argued by many scholars and public policy experts that controls on child labor in general harm the less developed economies and also, most particularly, the poorest families of these countries. In this chapter, the author maps out the implications of introducing alternative, more realistic behavioral assumptions for our understanding of interventions against the use of child labor. A fundamentally important public policy issue that flows from the analysis presented here is that effective restrictions on child labor and improvements in the working conditions of the remaining employed children need not cause harm to an economy's competitive position.
