Open AccessTrade and Child Labour in SAARC Countries
Author(s) -
Rossazana Ab-Rahim
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
estudios de economía aplicada
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 6
eISSN - 1697-5731
pISSN - 1133-3197
DOI - 10.25115/eea.v39i1.4278
Subject(s) - nexus (standard) , child labour , economics , free trade , homogeneous , context (archaeology) , international economics , panel data , economic integration , trade barrier , international free trade agreement , international trade , work (physics) , geography , econometrics , computer science , engineering , thermodynamics , mechanical engineering , physics , archaeology , embedded system
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.