The study is from Osmangazi University, "The effects of globalization on child labor in developing countries" I was initially drawn to the July 2010 study by a link at "The Environment Site", titled "Official: Globalisation causes child labour."
Aside from the opening mis-attribution of the paper to the University of Minnesota (!!), the Environment Site blog headline is disasterously wrong. The study includes "resource curse" (paradox of plenty) nations and shows that when the income or increased GDP derives from resource exploitation (oil, mining) rather than employment, that child labor rates go up rather than down.
Here's an actual quote from page one of the report:
Aside from the opening mis-attribution of the paper to the University of Minnesota (!!), the Environment Site blog headline is disasterously wrong. The study includes "resource curse" (paradox of plenty) nations and shows that when the income or increased GDP derives from resource exploitation (oil, mining) rather than employment, that child labor rates go up rather than down.
Here's an actual quote from page one of the report:
"In some studies such as Tesfay (2003), Kak (2004), Kambhampati and Ranjan (2005), it is emphasized that child labor participation rates decrease with the progressive stage of economic development. Tesfay (2003) finds significant results about child labor participation rates which initially increase with economic growth but decrease in the following stages in the developing countries that have 1000 USD or more PCGDP. Kak (2004) determines that the level of economic development is the only factor explaining the magnitude of child labor participation rates and there is a non linear relationship between each other. Kambhampati and Ranjan (2005) indicates a balance between the effect of economic growth that increase child labor demand and the effect of economic growth that decrease the child labor supply."The report does hold out that nations which have GDP under $1000 per year react initially to brand new foreign direct investment (FDI) by increasing child labor. Perhaps that's the point on the graph which blogger Chris Milton is thinking supports the claim that Globalization increases child labor. But the report clearly shows that this is a reaction by economically backward nations when the door is first open, and that in 3B3K nations - the ones where the E-Waste imports go - that child labor shows strong decline.
