Title: The economic exploitation of children: fact or fiction?

Organizers: Jon Moen (USA) and Brian Gratton (USA)
Address: Jon Moen, School of Business, University of Mississippi, PO Box 1848, University MS 38677, USA. Ph: 662 915 5467. Fax: 662 915 7968. 
Email: jmoen@bus.olemiss.edu.

Description of the session: This session will examine the use of child labor in the XIXth and early XXth century United States and Western Europe. In particular, the nature and extent of exploitation of children and their labor will be a common theme of the papers in this session. The concept of exploitation will also be examined in detail: is the presence of child labor sufficient evidence to confirm the existence of exploitation, or does the relationship between earnings and expropriation need to be examined more closely? This session will examine the exploitation of child labor from several viewpoints: immigrant families to the US and their use of child labor, the exploitation of apprentice labor in the XIXth century Quebec, the role of children in financing the German redemptioner migration to the US, and the place of child labor in early British industralization.
In response to current political concern over the exploitation of children in sweatshops in developing countries, economists have raised the question does child labor hurt children in the long run, or does their labor raise the family's standard of living sufficiently to benefit the child as well as his parents? This session will provide perspective on this current issue by examining how extensive exploitation was in the past. It will look at the economic conditions under which child labor was useful, and it will identify factors that resulted in its disappearance.

Participants: Gillian Hamilton (Canada); Simone Wegge (USA); Antonio Arroyo (Mexico). Chair: Farley Grubb (USA)
 

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