JAD Journal of African Development Spring 2006 | Volume 1 #1 SOME SURPRISING EFFECTS OF BETTER LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST CHILD TRAFFICKING Sylvain E. Dessy & Stéphane Pallage* ABSTRACT In this note, we highlight some economic effects of the existence of child traffick- ing. We show that the risk of child trafficking on the labor market acts as a deterrent to supply child labor, unless household survival is at stake. Better law enforcement against child trafficking, by raising the expected gains parents derive from sending their children to work, might have the undesirable effect of causing a rise in the number of child laborers and possibly in the incidence of child trafficking. Our findings support the view that the fight against child trafficking can only be won by effectively combining legislation with other policy measures, including better quality for education, redistribution, or appropri- ately targeted poverty alleviation programs. Keywords: Child labor, poverty, law enforcement, trafficking. JEL classi- fication: J22, J82, O15 *Pallage (corresponding author): Département des Sciences Économiques and CIRPEE, Université du Québec à Montréal, P.O.Box 8888, Downtown Station, Montreal, QC, Canada; Tel: 514-987- 3000 (ext 8370); E-mail: pallage.stephane@uqam.ca. Dessy: Département d’ Économique, Université Laval, Sainte-Foy, QC, G1K 7P4, Canada, E- mail: sdes@ecn.ulaval.ca. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/african-development/article-pdf/8/1/115/1319766/jafrideve_8_1_115.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022