Some Surprising Effects of Better Law Enforcement against Child Trafficking

In this note, we highlight some economic effects of the existence of child trafficking. We show that the risk of child trafficking on the labor market acts as a deterrent to supply child labor, unless household survival is at stake. Better law enforcement against child trafficking, by raising the expected gains parents derive from sending their children to work, might have the undesirable effect of causing a rise in the number of child laborers and possibly in the incidence of child trafficking. Our findings support the view that the fight against child trafficking can only be won by effectively combining legislation with other policy measures, including better quality for education, redistribution, or appropriately targeted poverty alleviation programs.