This book examines the effectiveness of trade and non-trade policies to combat the menace of child labour. Although it has decreased on the global scale in recent years, child labour still remains high, particularly in the developing countries. Keeping in mind the estimated extent of child labour in different regions around the globe, the book offers a detailed critical review of both theoretical and empirical literature on the topic as well as the policies to reduce the incidence of child labour. It also develops a general equilibrium model to demonstrate the possible effects of growth-promoting, non-trade policies, as opposed to direct trade policies, on child labour employment mitigation. The book argues that of the non-trade policies, the introduction of compulsory education appears to be an effective instrument for curtailing the child labour problem when families receive targeted subsidies for sending their children to school. It also shows that appropriately designed and targeted education subsidies can reduce the incidence of child labour and that social protection measures, such as subsidies on school enrolment, also tend to have a positive impact. The book not only opens up research topics for academicians but is also a valuable resource for policy makers.

Lawrence H. Summers presents a new paradigm for thinking about the current economic and technological revolution We are buffeted by the sense that everything is accelerating: Digital technology is changing the way we work, shop, and socialize. And yet for all the talk about disruptive innovations, economic growth is largely stagnant. We are told that with new technologies average citizens are empowered as never before, and yet wide swaths of the population feel powerless and can no longer count on stable careers and a better life for their children. As Lawrence H. Summers shows in The Post-Widget Society, these are the paradoxes that define the economic revolution that is transforming our world. At the heart of this revolution are two dramatic developments in Western economies: the declining significance of widgets (mass-produced goods) and the rise of design goods (products that cost a lot to design but little to produce); and the controversial prospect of secular stagnation, the long-term phenomenon of negligible economic growth and depressed employment in a dynamic market economy. Summers’s trenchant analysis of these trends reveals that they have profound implications not only for the future of jobs and widening income inequality but also for the nature of the state and the very stability of society. A bold, pathbreaking book by one of our most important economists, The Post-Widget Society is necessary reading for every American concerned about our economic and political future.

Renowned trade theorist Koji Shimomura passed away in February 2007 at the age of 54. He published nearly 100 articles in international academic journals. The loss of this extremely productive economist has been an enormous shock to the economic profession. This volume has emerged from the great desire on the part of the profession to honor his contributions to economic research. Contributors include authoritative figures in trade theory such as Murray Kemp, Ronald Jones, Henry Wan, and Wilfred Ethier, world-renowned macroeconomists such as Stephen Turnovski and Costas Azariadis, and leading Japanese economists such as Kazuo Nishimura, Makoto Yano, Ryuzo Sato, and Koichi Hamada. This broad range of contributors reflects Koji Shimomura’s many connections as well as the respect he earned in the economic profession. This volume offers the reader a rare opportunity to learn the views of so many renowned economists from different schools of thought.

Children in poor countries are subjected to exploitation characterized by low wages and long hours of work, as well as by unclean, unhygienic and unsafe working and living conditions, and, more importantly, by deprivation from education, all of which hampers their physical and mental development. Child labour is a complex issue, and clearly it has no simple solution. This book sheds some understanding of its root causes. The book attempts to delve into many of the important theoretical aspects of child labour and suggests policies that could indeed be useful in dealing with the problem under diverse situations using alternative multisector general equilibrium models.