Re: Interesting story

[Peter Dorman]

Just a minor point about that Mobil ad.  Their chart on child labor uses official data for the wealthier countries, but this data is completely misleading.  The vast majority of child labor in all countries that use permit systems (so this excludes the US, which has no federal permit system) is off the books and unrecorded.  There is overwhelming evidence on this score.  I know, because I'm in the latter stages of a report on this topic.

(Of course, the real question is not how many kids are working, but what they're doing and why.  This gets us into issues that are too complicated for Mobil's purposes, or for a short post on pen-l for that matter.)

Peter
 

Mark Weisbrot sent me this.

         The Dollar and Kraay paper was originally released in
draft form, and so it is quite possible that it will re-appear.
Still, there are numerous working papers on the Bank's web
site, and this one has received a good deal of attention from
the press, often as a rebuttal to critics of globalization or the
IMF/WB's policies.* So it is unusual to see it removed from
the Bank web site. And it is likely that if it does re-surface, it
will not make the same sweeping claims, which were taken up
by various defenders of current policy.

Mark Weisbrot

*See e.g., the Economist May 27, 2000; Financial Times,
April 12, 2000 (p.23); Daily Telegraph (London) June 9,
2000. Just last Thursday (Oct. 5) ExxonMobil ran an ad on
the New York Times op-ed page, citing the paper in its lead.

Name: Mark Weisbrot
E-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Co-Director
Center for Economic and Policy Research
1015 18th Street NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
Phone (202) 293-5380 x228
Fax (202) 822-1199
(202) 333-6141 (home)
www.cepr.net

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]