Child labor in developing countries : a child exploitation measure (CEM)

In the developing countries, poor families try to pool resources from all directions in order to survive. When surival is at stake, child labor follows. As a result, many children are denied schooling and are forced into employment at a very early age. These unfortunate children are victims of exploitation. With the lack of internationally set age or safety standards, children are forced to knot carpets or sharpen scissors for 13 hours a day. While the employing companies use cheap labor to market their goods globally, developing countries are left to suffer from poor health, high illiteracy, and more poverty. Arguing that child labor is anti-developmental, this research documents the status of working children in the developing world. This thesis introduces a new quantitative measure of child exploitation. The Child Exploitation Measure (CEM) is a multidimensional index that focuses on the lack of fulfilling basic capabilities in terms of economic activity (child labor), education (no schooling), and health (malnutrition) that constrain children from reaching an acceptable level of human development. The study classifies developing countries accordingly and empirically tests its relationship to other developmental indicators (per capita income, human development index, gender empowerment measure, and human poverty index)