What do the figures indicate about child labor during this part of the Industrial Revolution?

Abstract

Child labor was more prevalent in 19th-century industrializers than it is in developing countries today. It was particularly extensive in the earliest industrializers. This pattern may be a source of optimism signaling the spread of technologies that have little use for child labor and of values that endorse the preservation and protection of childhood. Today and historically, orphaned and fatherless children and those in large families are most vulnerable. Efficient interventions to curb child labor involve fiscal transfers to these children and active policies toward street children. Changes in capitalist labor markets (including technology), family strategies, state policies, and cultural norms are examined to shed light on the causes, chronology, and consequences of child labor.

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The World Bank Economic Review (WBER) is one of the most widely read scholarly economic journals in the world. It is the only journal of its kind that specializes in quantitative development policy analysis. Subject to strict refereeing, articles examine policy choices and therefore emphasize policy relevance rather than theory or methodology. Readers include economists and other social scientists in government, business, international agencies, universities, and research institutions. The WBER seeks to provide the most current and best research in the field of economic development.

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journal article

Journal of Population Economics

Vol. 10, No. 4 (Oct., 1997)

, pp. 357-375 (19 pages)

Published By: Springer

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20007554

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Abstract

The share of children employed in English cotton factories fell significantly before the introduction of effective child labor legislation in the early 1830s. The early factories employed predominantly children because adults without factory experience were relatively unproductive factory workers. The subsequent growth of the cotton industry fostered the development of a labor market for productive adult factory workers. This effect helps account for the shift toward adults in the cotton factory workforce.

Journal Information

The Journal of Population Economics is an international quarterly that publishes original theoretical and applied research and survey articles on topics dealing with broadly defined relationships between economic and demographic problems. Both extensive surveys of wider areas and shorter reviews of important new developments are considered. Appropriate microlevel topics may cover household behavior, including household formation, fertility choices, education, labor supply, and migration; macrolevel topics may deal with economic growth with exogenous or endogenous population evolution, population policy, savings and pensions, social security, housing, and health care. Economic approaches to biology, studies dealing with the interrelation between population dynamics and public choice and research on the impact of population on the distribution of income and wealth are of interest. Papers dealing with policy issues and development problems are also being solicited if they deal with population issues.

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Springer is one of the leading international scientific publishing companies, publishing over 1,200 journals and more than 3,000 new books annually, covering a wide range of subjects including biomedicine and the life sciences, clinical medicine, physics, engineering, mathematics, computer sciences, and economics.

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This item is part of a JSTOR Collection.
For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions
Journal of Population Economics © 1997 Springer
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