Lifetime health consequences of child labor in Brazil

Chanyoung Lee; Peter F. Orazem

doi:10.1108/S0147-9121(2010)0000031007

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Research in Labor Economics

ISSN: 0147-9121
Series editor(s): Professor Solomon Polachek, Dr Konstantinos Tatsiramos

Subject Area: Economics

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Lifetime health consequences of child labor in Brazil

Document Information:
Title:	Lifetime health consequences of child labor in Brazil
Author(s):	Chanyoung Lee, Peter F. Orazem
Volume:	31 Editor(s): Randall K.Q. Akee, Eric V. Edmonds, Konstantinos Tatsiramos ISBN: 978-0-85724-000-2 eISBN: 978-0-85724-001-9
Citation:	Chanyoung Lee, Peter F. Orazem (2010), Lifetime health consequences of child labor in Brazil, in Randall K.Q. Akee, Eric V. Edmonds, Konstantinos Tatsiramos (ed.) Child Labor and the Transition between School and Work (Research in Labor Economics, Volume 31), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.99-133
DOI:	10.1108/S0147-9121(2010)0000031007 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Abstract:	The health consequences of child labor may take time to manifest themselves. This study examines whether children who began working at a young age experience increased incidence of illness or physical disability as adults. When child labor and schooling are treated as chosen without consideration of unobserved abilities or health endowments, child labor appears to have small adverse effects on a wide variety of health measures. Some adverse health consequences such as heart disease or hypertension seem unlikely to be caused by child labor. However, when we allow unobserved health and ability endowments to alter the age of labor market entry and years of schooling completed, the joint effects of child labor and schooling on health become larger while the less plausible health consequences lose significance. Results imply that delaying entry into child labor while increasing time in school significantly lowers the probability of early onset of physical ailments such as back problems, arthritis, or reduced strength or stamina. However, our methods are not able to distinguish between the health impacts of child labor from the impacts of reduced time in school.