Peer-reviewed article
Trade and Child Labour in SAARC Countries
Rossazana Ab-Rahim ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how trade affects child labour in SAARC countries (South Asia) between 1999 and 2019, using panel data analysis. It shows that opening trade alone does not reduce child labour unless accompanied by supportive measures. The research identifies three trade-induced effects—selection, scale, and technique effects—that shape child labour demand. The findings suggest trade liberalization can reduce child labour in emerging markets when these effects work together.
Key points
- Trade opening alone does not reduce child labour without supportive measures
- Three trade-induced effects shape child labour: selection, scale, and technique effects
- Previous studies only examined trade and child labour in homogeneous goods; this study incorporates product heterogeneity
- Panel data analysis covered the period 1999 to 2019
- Trade liberalization through combined trade-induced effects can hamper child labour in emerging markets
Limitations
The document does not specify which SAARC countries were included, sample sizes, or provide quantitative results. It is unclear what specific supportive measures are needed to make trade effective in reducing child labour.
Abstract
A review of past studies shows that the studies confine their analysis of trade and child labour in the setting of the trading of homogeneous goods. Hence, the presence study aims to assess the relationship of trade and child labour in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries by incorporating the role of selection of variety or product heterogeneity in child labour demand. In the context of trade in homogeneous and heterogeneous goods, the trade-induced effects are the selection, scale, and technique effects. The panel data analysis is employed to investigate the nexus between trade and child labour over the study period of 1999 to 2019. The results imply that the opening of trade alone will not reduce child labour if it is not accompanied by supportive measures, namely the trade-related effect of child labour, the effect of scale and technique. Therefore, this study suggests that trade liberalization through trade-induced effect would hamper the child labour presence in the emerging markets.