Socio-Economic Factors in Child Labor: Moderating Role of Education

Abstract

The notion of child labor has disquieted the researcher. This paper highlights the impact of poverty, unemployment and social progress on child labor based on data from 30 countries to ascertain that incidence of child labor may be high with high level of poverty and unemployment along with low level of social progress and educational attainment. The results reveal that poverty has a positive while social progress and unemployment has negative relation with child labor. Moreover, education moderates the causal effects of social progress on child labor, while social progress also mediates the relationship between poverty and child labor.