In: Economics
Discuss Kaushik basu model for child labor
Kaushik basu model states that the child labor as a mass phenomenon would not arise due to the parental selfishness however because of their concern for the survival of the household due to the poverty, the famous argument for ban of the child labor loses much of its force. If a ban is imposed on children labor, and in the market usually the adult and child are usually substitutes; thus with ban of child labor there will be short of labor. With the excess demand for labor, the wages of adults will increase. With the rise in income parents would not be willing to send their children to work. Thus the ban can become redundant. To summarize, once an imposed bad becomes an unnecessary ban. As a result this assumption related to the parental decision-making and substitute ability in production between adult and child labor could cause multiple equilibria in the labor market, wherein one equilibrium where there is child labor and another where wage of adults is high and children do not work