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This thesis investigates the impact of different policies on child labor. To this aim, the thesis first provides an overview of the definitions and the global outlook of child labor and discusses the recent policy agenda in the fight against child labor. The thesis then presents the conceptual framework guiding the thesis and a review of related literature, followed by three empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter evaluates the impact of the extension of compulsory schooling from 8 to 12 years in Turkey on child labor. The chapter uses data from the Child Labor Force Survey (CLS) and relies on a difference-in-difference methodology for identification. Comparing the labor market outcomes of children from different age groups and exploiting their exposure to the old or the new compulsory schooling policy, the chapter finds that being subject to higher years of compulsory schooling reduces the probability of working longer hours per week. The policy also reduces the probability of working in certain types of jobs and in specific sectors for different groups of children. The second empirical chapter investigates the effect of the increase in the minimum wage on the prevalence of child labor in Turkey. Using data from the CLS over a period where the real minimum wage has increased substantially, the chapter compares the labor market outcomes of children from minimum wage-earning families with children from other families before and after the hike in the minimum wage. The chapter finds that the increase in the minimum wage leads to a reduction in the probability of employment of children younger than 15, especially girls, and the probability of working longer hours for children older than 14, primarily boys. The third empirical chapter evaluates the impact of compulsory schooling policy on child labor in Low-and-Middle-Income countries (LMIC) by integrating the mediating role of the structural factors into the analysis. This chapter uses data from the Multi Indica, Bu tez farklı politikaların çocuk işçiliği üzerindeki etkilerini incelemektedir. Bu amaçla, ilk olarak çocuk işçiliğine ilişkin tanımlar ve küresel görünüm sunulduktan sonra çocuk işçiliğini azaltmaya yönelik güncel politikalar tartışılmaktadır. Daha sonra, tezin kuramsal çerçevesi, ilgili yazın değerlendirmesi ve çalışmanın ampirik analizleri sunulmaktadır. İlk ampirik bölüm, Türkiye'de zorunlu eğitimin 8 yıldan 12 yıla uzatılmasının çocuk işçiliği üzerindeki etkilerini incelemektedir. Bu bölümde Çocuk İşgücü Anketi (ÇİA) verileri kullanılırken, ayrıştırma stratejisi farkların-farkı yöntemine dayanmaktadır. Yeni ya da eski zorunlu eğitim politikasına tabi olmalarından kaynaklanan farklılıklarını dikkate alarak, farklı yaş gruplarındaki çocukların işgücü piyasası çıktılarını karşılaştıran bu analiz, 12 yıl zorunlu eğitime tabi olmanın çocukların haftada uzun saatler çalışma olasılığını azalttığını bulmaktadır. Politika ayrıca farklı gruplardaki çocukların belirli işlerde ve sektörlerde çalışma ihtimalini de azaltmaktadır. İkinci ampirik bölüm, Türkiye'de asgari ücret artışının çocuk işçiliği üzerindeki etkisini analiz etmektedir. Asgari ücretin reel olarak önemli bir oranda yükseldiği bir dönem için ÇİA verileri kullanılarak yapılan incelemelerde asgari ücretli ailelerden gelen çocuklar ile diğer ailelerden gelen çocukların asgari ücret artışından önceki ve sonraki işgücü piyasası çıktıları karşılaştırılmaktadır. Bulgular, asgari ücret artışının 15 yaş altındaki çocukların -özellikle kızların- çalışma ihtimalini, 14 yaşın üzerindeki çocukların -özellikle erkeklerin- ise uzun saatler çalışma olasılığını azalttığına işaret etmektedir. Üçüncü ampirik bölüm ise düşük-ve-orta-gelirli ülkelerde, yapısal unsurları da dikkate alarak, zorunlu eğitim politikasının çocuk işçiliğini azaltma etkisini incelemektedir. Bu analizde UNICEF tarafından yayınlanan ve düşük-ve-orta gelirli ülkelerde yapılan Çok Göstergeli Küme Anketleri (Multi Indicator Cluster Surveys -MICS) verileri ku

Introduction The prevalence of smoking is unequally distributed across certain groups. One significant dimension is education inequality, where higher smoking prevalence is generally observed in lower-educated groups. However, studies investigating educational inequality are mostly associative. Meanwhile, studies carrying out a causal investigation focus typically on developed countries. In this study, we consider a panel of low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) to investigate the causal link between education and smoking behavior. Aims and Methods We use detailed micro-level household surveys for 12 LMICs where the duration of compulsory schooling has been extended. By identifying the individuals subject to higher compulsory schooling and using the exogenous variation in education caused by the increase in the duration of compulsory schooling, we estimate the causal impact of education on tobacco consumption. We rely on regression analysis to estimate the effect. Results Our results reveal that those subject to higher years of compulsory schooling have lower smoking-related outcomes, suggesting that higher education significantly lowers tobacco consumption in LMICs. The effect is primarily observed for women, where, for instance, higher compulsory schooling reduces the probability of smoking by 23% and the number of cigarettes smoked by 27%. Conclusions The study's results establish the causal link between education and smoking behavior in LMICs. This significant impact suggests that education policy is still an important tool to help reduce tobacco consumption, especially in settings where the average level of education is not high initially. Moreover, discouraging men from smoking requires other measures to complement education policy. Implications Education might help reduce tobacco consumption. However, studies-primarily for developed countries-find mixed results. This paper investigates the causal role of education on smoking in LMICs. Education reduces toba

This paper investigates the sectoral price and quantity responses to an exogenous interest rate shock in the United States. It has two main findings. First, an interest rate shock causes strong relative price effects in a non-negligible number of sectors whose price responses to the shock differ broadly from those of the aggregate. More importantly, such effects are present even four years after the shock. Second, sectoral differences in the frequency of price changes are only weakly associated with the sectoral price and quantity responses. We show that a multi-sector model equipped with a working-capital channel, sticky wages, and sectoral heterogeneity in the frequency of price changes and the structure of production costs can explain these two findings. © 2022 Elsevier Inc., University of British Columbia, UBC, Mustafa Tuğan owes many thanks to Andrea Tambalotti for sharing his mapping between the personal consumption expenditure categories and sectoral frequencies of price adjustments. In addition, we would like to thank Paul Beaudry, Ali Lazrak, Amartya Lahiri, Hafedh Bouakez, Lorenzo Garlappi, Natasha D'Souza, Viktoria Hnatkovska, Yaniv Yedid-Levi, seminar participants at Istanbul Technical University, Middle East Technical University, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, and the University of British Columbia, the editor William Lastrapes, and the anonymous referee for their insightful comments on the paper. All remaining errors are ours.

This paper investigates the sectoral price and quantity responses to an exogenous interest rate shock in the United States. It has two main findings. First, an interest rate shock causes strong relative price effects in a non-negligible number of sectors whose price responses to the shock differ broadly from those of the aggregate. More importantly, such effects are present even four years after the shock. Second, sectoral differences in the frequency of price changes are only weakly associated with the sectoral price and quantity responses. We show that a multi-sector model equipped with a working-capital channel, sticky wages, and sectoral heterogeneity in the frequency of price changes and the structure of production costs can explain these two findings. © 2022 Elsevier Inc., University of British Columbia, UBC, Mustafa Tuğan owes many thanks to Andrea Tambalotti for sharing his mapping between the personal consumption expenditure categories and sectoral frequencies of price adjustments. In addition, we would like to thank Paul Beaudry, Ali Lazrak, Amartya Lahiri, Hafedh Bouakez, Lorenzo Garlappi, Natasha D'Souza, Viktoria Hnatkovska, Yaniv Yedid-Levi, seminar participants at Istanbul Technical University, Middle East Technical University, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, and the University of British Columbia, the editor William Lastrapes, and the anonymous referee for their insightful comments on the paper. All remaining errors are ours.