Office hours – Sunday 1-5 2nd Exam Covers Lectures

Homeworks 4-6

C9 Compensating Wage Diff Feb 26C12_13 Human Capital March 5_7Discrimination (not slides 22-30)Immigration Manicurists LectureGM, UAW and Bondholders, April 16Government_Scrutinizes_G.M.’s_PlanLabor Unions April 18Child Labor

Topics: human capital, compensating wage differentials, earnings functions, immigration, union tax and occupational licensing.

Textbook: chapters 8-10, 12-13

“You didn’t have the mind for school, anyway,” his father had recently observed. Abdul wasn’t sure he’d had enough schooling to make a judgment either way. In the early years, he’d sat in a classroom where nothing much happened. Then there had been only work. (Boo, p. 18)

Abdul Husain sorts garbage for a living in Mumbai, India. He is one-step up from being a waste-picker, or scavenger, who prowl garbage dumps and trash bins looking for plastic bottles, aluminum cans and other recyclables. Abdul is 19 years old when we first meet him in Behind the Beautiful Forevers; actually, we can’t be sure that he’s 19 because his mom doesn’t remember when he was born. Most of his suppliers are younger: for example, Sunil, is 12 years old, having recently been kicked out of an orphanage.

Abdul has skills: he knows how to gauge the value of recyclables; how to negotiate with waste-pickers; and, is lightening fast at sorting recyclables into the categories bought by recycling plants. Abdul learned what he knows on the street, not in schools. Indeed, he has no formal education.

Edmonds and Pavcnik (2005) examine whether Vietnams repeal of banning the exports of rice led to an increase in child labor.

Controversy—does increasing trade lead to more child labor?

References

Edmonds, Eric and Nina Pavcnik. 2005. The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Child Labor. Journal of International Economics. 65 (2), 401– 419.

Boo, Katherine. 2012. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. New York: Random House.

Postrel Virginia. 2005. “Research Changes Ideas About Children and Work.” The New York Times, July 14, 2005.