The economics literature generally considers income poverty to be the main cause of child labour. However, recent papers have cast doubt on this, showing evidence that greater land wealth leads to higher child labour. Bhalotra and Heady (World Bank Economic Review, 2003) showed that land size has a positive effect on child labour in Ghana and Pakistan. Supporting evidence has also been found in Burkina Faso (Dumas, Oxford Economic Papers, 2007).

Land in agrarian societies is considered a source of wealth and thus, this effect is labeled as the wealth paradox. Basu et al., (Journal of Development Economics, 2010) considered labour market imperfections in their theoretical model, and suggested an inverse-U shaped relationship between land size and child labour. It is argued that labour market imperfections are significant enough to hinder the expected negative relationship between household wealth and child labour.