... In the 1990s opponents of child labor pushed for a global boycott of of hand-knotted carpets made by children. Many Nepalese carpet makers had a simple response: they summarily fired their children. As a result, between 5,000 and 7,000 girls became prostitutes. A well-intentioned campaign ended up hurting the very people it sought to protect... [The Economics of Child Labor, Sciam (requires a paid online-subscription*)]

A short summary of that excellent article can be found here (The Economist, free).

Interesting: In poor countries, the supply curve can have a stair-step shape. Low wages actually attract more workers, because children must enter the work force for families to make ends meet. When this happens, the supply and demand curves meet at more than one point.



*What the heck? Although I am a subscriber of the print edition I have to pay extra for the online edition??