10/2/2009
=Child labor=
Why it's bad?
  - opportunity cost lost---lose out on education
  - sometimes children are forced into it
  - human capital
  
Reality
  - it's needs-based: families need the support of working children
  - short-term gain vs. long-term cost
    -> subsistence---you'll die if you consider the long-term
  - gender: females are sometimes not an asset as adults, so put them to
    work while they are young
  - the outside option is not always present: in the U.S., we guarantee education
    up to a certain age, but that's not always the case everywhere

How to increase the likelihood of the outside option?
  - give parents money if they send kids to school
  - give children food at school
  - public institution of education
    -> not perfect if it's funded from local investments, as poor regions will
       get less resources for education
    -> government or private institutions may be corrupt

Policies against child labor
  - Boycott the products produced by child labor
    -> side-effect: if there's nothing else for them to do with their time,
       the boys may join gangs and the girls may become prostitutes
  - Western guilt: americans are unhappy with child labor, so _we_ should pay
    for the policy changes in other countries
  - Fines: penalize a company with fine of size D, with audit of probability p
    -> this doesn't help the child street laborer not working for a company
  - Information campaigns: Rob Jensen did this.  Kids who perform badly on
    tests underestimate value of education on earnings, and vice versa.  Just
    telling kids that increased education->increased earnings leads to higher
    earnings
  - Increase motivation: if people are skeptical of govt. or see corruption,
    they won't see why trying harder to get educated will help

Building a model
  - Wages are based on supply and demand
  - Demand for workers comes from productivity of workers
  - Wage of adult: W_a
  - Wage of kid: W_k
  - Subsistence level S---minimum level of subsistence you need to survive
  - D is fine for firm employing children, and p is probability of audit
  - e = # kids sent to child labor
  - \alpha*W_a = W_k'
    W_k = W_k' - pD
    if W_a > S, e = 0
    if W_a < S, e = minimal e required for e*W_k + W_A = S
    
    so if the fine D goes up, childhood wages decrease.  But then, the minimal
      e required for e*W_k + W_A = S goes up!
    only way to beat this is to drive W_k down to 0, which is hard and imperfect

Biggest constant in all of development economics: in general, women make better
  spending decisions (give them the money, let them decide how to spend it, etc.)
=Misc. on Nutrition=