Child Labor Bans, Employment, and School Attendance: Evidence from Changes in the Minimum Working Age

Arbeitspapier

This paper investigates the effect of a unique child labor ban regulation on employment and school enrollment. The ban implemented in Mexico in 2015, increased the minimum working age from 14 to 15, introduced restrictions to employ underage individuals, and imposed penalties for the violation of the law. Our identification strategy relies on a DiD approach that exploits the date of birth as a natural cutoff to assign individuals into treatment and control groups. The ban led to a decrease in the probability to work by 1.2 percentage points and an increase in the probability of being enrolled in school by 2.2 percentage points for the treatment group. These results are driven by a reduction in employment in paid activities, and in the secondary and tertiary sectors. The effects are persistent several years after the ban.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 15144

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply ; Labor Demand ; Labor Standards: Labor Force Composition ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
• Subject: child labor ; ban ; minimum working age ; schooling

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kozhaya, Mireille ; Martínez Flores, Fernanda
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/252268
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET