Abstract

Research into the topic of child labour has experienced a significant upswing in the past two decades. Yet despite this increased attention, child labour remains a significant problem in many parts of the world. According to recent estimates by the International Labor Organization (ILO), there were approximately 176 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 in employment in 2008, of which roughly 53 million were participating in hazardous work (Diallo et al., 2010). A common perception is that most child labourers work for wages in the formal sector, conjuring images of children working long hours in sweatshops or toiling away in mines. As a result, consumer boycotts and trade sanctions against products using child labour as an input are often discussed as means of reducing the incidence of child labour. In reality, however, such methods may have little impact for several reasons. Firstly, the majority of working children are active in the agricultural sector, rather than manufacturing (ILO, 2006; Diallo et al., 2010). Secondly, very few children work for wages outside the home; rather, most children are employed by their parents on the family farm or enterprise (Edmonds and Pavcnik, 2005a).

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