child labor reconsidered

Cafe Hayek points to an excellent article in today's New York Times by Virginia Postrel. The article, "Research Changes Ideas About Children and Work", discusses recent research by Eric V. Edmonds and Nina Pavcnik on child labor and concludes with this pithy comment:

"Most child labor policy even today is directed at trying to get kids into unemployment - to limit working opportunities for kids," he said in the interview. But, "if households are already in a situation where they don't want their children to be working, but they're forced to because of their circumstance, taking additional steps to prevent the kids from working is punishing the poorest for being poor."

Like so many policies pushed by those on the left, anti-child labor laws backfire.