Biswajit Chatterjee

Child Labour in an Open Economy: a General Equilibrium Analysis Biswajit Chatterjee

The research work is based on a specific-factor general equilibrium framework to study the effectiveness of different trade and non-trade policies on child labour incidence and their impacts on national welfare, trade balance. Chapter 2 of the study reviews the literature on child labour . In chapter 3 of the dissertation, we have built a two sector general equilibrium model to investigate the effect of two alternative trade restrictive policies on child labour market. In chapter 4, we have extended the model into a three sector general equilibrium framework and have investigated the effect of both trade and non-trade policies. Non-trade policy is captured in terms of economic expansion. In chapter 5, we have considered a competitive general equilibrium model of a small open, less developed economy suffering from both (i) adult unemployment and (ii) child labour problem. We have tried to investigate the effects of imposition of three alternative trade restrictive policies. In chapter 6 our objective has been to examine the role of education subsidy in curtailing the incidence of child labour supply. In chapter 7, we summarise the main conclusions of our study.