Under some conditions, macroeconomic crises can have a positive effect on the accumulation of human capital because they reduce the opportunity cost of schooling. This has profound implications for the design of appropriate social protection policies. The impact of macroeconomic crises on...

This paper uses micro data from the 1980, 1991 and 2000 population censuses to investigate the role of changes in the industry mix in accounting for the differential trends in the incidence of child work (ages 10-15) across Brazilian states. We find that exogenous compositional changes account...

This paper uses micro data from the Brazilian PNAD between 1981 and 2002 to ascertain the role that local labor demand – proxied by male adult employment in the area of residence - plays in shaping the work and schooling decisions of children aged 10-15. Contrary to the widespread view that...

In this paper we investigate whether the differential evolution of child work across Brazilian states between 1980 and 2000 can be explained by their different patterns of specialization in industries where children have a comparative advantage. We find that the adoption of different industries...

The study addresses the comparability of child labour estimates produced by different common household survey instruments. This question has important implications for credibility of published estimates of child labour, and for the reliability of current survey instruments as tools for...