Kirk Doran

Instructor, Department of Economics and Econometrics
and Kellogg Faculty Fellow
University of Notre Dame

"From the Fields to the Classroom: Using Labor Markets to More Safely Reduce Child Work"

Abstract

When poor families must choose between sending their children to school or letting them work to support the household, often the choice is work: one-fifth of the world's population of five- to fourteen-year-olds was working in 2000—half in hazardous work. In order for their economies to grow, developing nations must ensure their children receive a good education. But since some children make significant economic contributions to their households, and many of these households cannot borrow against the future wages of educated children, it seems that any compulsory schooling requirement might have to be accompanied by large wealth transfers—or else families will be made even worse off.  However, if employers substitute adults for children, then as children leave work, their parents' wages will increase. The extra parental income would then make it possible to more safely move children from the fields to the classroom.

Biography

Kirk Doran joined Notre Dame’s Department of Economics and Econometrics in the summer of 2007 as an instructor.

His research interests include labor economics, development economics, and applied microeconomics. Currently, he is studying the equilibrium effects of labor market changes in developing nations.  He is seeking to extend his research on child labor into concrete programs to reduce dependency on child work and increase access to education in developing nations.