Agricultural Dualism, Incidence of Child Labour and Subsidy Policies

Dwibedi, Jayanta and Chaudhuri, Sarbajit (2009): Agricultural Dualism, Incidence of Child Labour and Subsidy Policies. Unpublished.

Abstract

This paper purports to examine the validity of the common belief that in a developing economy the backward agricultural sector should be subsidized as poorer group of the working population are employed in this sector that send their children out to work out of sheer poverty. A three-sector general equilibrium framework with agricultural dualism and child labour has been employed for the purpose of analysis. It finds that a price subsidy policy to backward agricultural sector is likely to aggravate the child labour incidence while a credit subsidy to advanced agriculture may be effective in reducing the gravity of the problem in the economy. The paper, therefore, questions the desirability of assisting backward agriculture for eradicating child labour in the society.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Child labour, general equilibrium, agricultural dualism, subsidy policy.
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J13 - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J10 - General; O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O17 - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements: Legal, Social, Economic, and Political; D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D10 - General

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