A woman’s work is never done: fiscal policy and women’s labour supply in Malawi

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-60
Author(s):  
Frank Kalizinje
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Labour Supply ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Multinomial Logit Model ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Strict Adherence ◽  
Women's Welfare

The study sought to identify factors that fiscal policy can target to induce beneficial female labour force participation (FLFP) in formal wage, casual (ganyu) and agricultural labour. To achieve this, the study first used the Multinomial Logit Model on Malawi’s Second Integrated Household Survey dataset (IHS2) to predict the occupational distribution and to test for differences in the factors associated with the choice among the three labour outcomes. This helped to identify channels through which gender-responsive fiscal policies can target and enhance FLFP and in turn uplift women’s welfare. The empirical results revealed that when women are poor, residing in rural areas, not married or are heads of households and are least educated, they are more likely to supply casual and/or agricultural labour compared to formal wage labour. Therefore, to enhance women’s welfare through FLFP, gender-sensitive spending programmes should target women with such characteristics. The study further recommended increased gender-sensitive spending on farm credit and inputs, literacy education, girls’ education and public-works programmes. It further encouraged strict adherence to gender budgeting at national and local government level. To finance these proposals the study suggested introducing a levy on alcohol and tobacco the revenue of which should strictly be used to empower girls and enhance women’s labour supply.

Labour supply dynamics at the extensive and intensive margins of the UK men and women

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lixin Cai
Keyword(s):  
Labour Supply ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
State Dependence ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Tobit Model ◽  
The State ◽  
Individual Heterogeneity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Extensive And Intensive Margins ◽  
The Uk

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to enhance understanding labour supply dynamics of the UK workers by examining whether and to what extent there is state dependence in the labour supply at both the extensive and intensive margins.Design/methodology/approachA dynamic two-tiered Tobit model is applied to the first seven waves of Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study. The model used accounts for observed and unobserved individual heterogeneity and serially correlated transitory shocks to labour supply to draw inferences on state dependence.FindingsThe results show that both observed and unobserved individual heterogeneity contributes to observed inter-temporal persistence of the labour supply of the UK workers, and the persistence remains after these factors are controlled for, suggesting true state dependence at both the extensive and intensive margins of the labour supply. The study also finds that at both the margins, the state dependence of labour supply is larger for females than for males and that for both genders the state dependence is larger for people with low education, mature aged workers and people with long-standing illness or impairment. The results also show that estimates from a conventional Tobit model may produce misleading inferences regarding labour supply at the extensive and intensive margins.Originality/valueThis study adds to the international literature on labour supply dynamics by providing empirical evidence for both the extensive and intensive margins of labour supply, while previous studies tend to focus on the extensive margin of labour force participation only. Also, unlike earlier studies that often focus on females, this study compares labour supply dynamics between males and females. The study also compares the estimates from the more flexible two-tiered Tobit model with that from the conventional Tobit model.

Female labour force participation: evidence from Ghana

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 1489-1505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abena Yeboah Abraham ◽  
Fidelia Nana Akom Ohemeng ◽  
Williams Ohemeng
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Female Labour Force Participation ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Female Labour ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine female labour force participation (FLFP) and their employment choice between the formal and informal sectors after several institutional and social reforms such as Millennium Development Goal 3 aimed at promoting gender equality and empowerment of women by 2015, using data from Ghana’s 2010 Population and Housing Census. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, logit regression and multinomial logit techniques were employed. Findings The results show that FLFP has declined marginally from the 2005 figures; education remains the important factor in determining women’s participation in the formal sector. Strikingly 91 per cent of the FLFP is engaged in the informal sector of the Ghanaian economy, a sector with a very low contribution per head. Practical implications Interventions such as encouraging female education and retraining of self-employed females to improve upon their efficiency ought to be pursued vigorously; whiles developing rural areas for females to get equal labour opportunities and many others aimed at enhancing the efficiency and by inference earning per head of the informal sector is highly recommended. Originality/value The literature on the FLFP is thin in Ghana. The current study uses a census data unlike the previous studies and as such employed a huge sample size that reflects the reality in Ghana. The study contributed immensely to policy having established that 91 per cent of the female labour force is engaged in the informal sectors of the economy, and therefore any intervention targeting at reducing poverty and meeting the MDG 3 should be targeted at the informal sector of the Ghanaian economy.

scholarly journals Spousal effects on wages, labour supply and household production in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Orkoh ◽  
Phillip F. Blaauw ◽  
Carike Claassen
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Labour Supply ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Household Production ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Wage Premium ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Hours Of Work

Background: The relationship between spousal wages and hours of work, including the phenomenon of a spousal premium or penalty, is well documented in the literature. However, there is limited information on the situation in developing countries where labour market rigidities and cultural norms are factors in the division of labour between husbands and wives.Aim: This article addresses the research gap by analysing spousal wages among couples and the cross-wage effect of spousal time allocation.Setting: Households in Ghana, where sociocultural norms largely influence the role of men and women constituted the context of the study.Methods: The instrumental variable Tobit estimation regression was used to analyse pooled data from three Ghana Living Standard Surveys.Results: The results reveal elements of a working spousal wage premium (due to positive selection rather than specialisation) for both men and women regardless of their ethnic affiliations. The analysis of the effect of wage on spousal hours of work also suggested complementarity in employment and household labour decisions between couples.Conclusion: Men’s and women’s participation in household production significantly improves each other’s labour market participation and labour supply. These results corroborate the evidence of a wage premium in the literature. We recommend that government should promote equitable wage rates in the labour market and prioritise policies such as paternal leave which could encourage men to participate in household production and indirectly promote women’s labour force participation.

scholarly journals Employment Expectations and Labour Force Participation in Canada

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-331
Author(s):  
Arthur Donner ◽  
Fred Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Labour Supply ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Traditional Model ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Market Expectations

This paper incorporates a role for expectations in the short-run behavior of labour supply decision, presents a theory introducing labour market expectations as a variable influencing labour supply, and discusses the relative merits of the expectations model vis-à-vis the traditional model using the empirical results derived in this work.

scholarly journals Association of household income and female labour force participation rate in income generating activities in hill rural areas of Uttarakhand

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prashant Kandari ◽  
Uma Bahuguna
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
The State ◽  
Female Labour Force Participation ◽  
Labour Force Participation Rate ◽  
Female Labour ◽  
Income Generating Activities

As per 2011 Census, about 70 per cent of population in Uttarakhand state resides in rural areas and the ten hill districts out of total 13 districts of the State comprises 48.1 per cent of its entire population. Difficult terrain, lack of transport, lack of employment due to non availability of industrial sector along with small farm sizes and low farm incomes has fuelled large migration from these hill rural areas of the Uttarakhand to the urban regions across the country. The various studies reflect upon the importance of women in the economy of the hill areas as they share the burden of their families and their participation in employment and subsistence cum income generating activities mainly in the rural regions is much higher than the males. The importance of women further enhances amidst the severe problem of migration of males and mainly of the youths from these regions to the urban areas. The women are left back to work in most tough conditions further taking care of the domestic chores. The females labour force participation is higher in rural areas of the state, as per National Sample Survey Office, 68th Round, the female labour force participation rate in rural areas was 31.5 percent and 10.8 percent in urban areas of the state. In this context it is very important to understand the nature of female labour force participation i.e. , whether it is in non-income generating sector like agriculture or in purely income generating sector which mainly comprises of both i.e., agriculture and non-agriculture sector. The present study analyses this distribution of female labour force participation and depicts the association between the female labour force participation in income generating activities and the total household income.

Not All Time Is Money: Women’s Burden of Unpaid Work

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Aishwarya Bhuta ◽  
Mridula Muralidharan
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Unpaid Work ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Force Time ◽  
Infrastructural Support

Since the 1990s, India has been witnessing a downward trend in female labour force participation (FLFP). Feminist economists have argued that the invisible labour of unpaid household work is quintessential for the social reproduction of the labour force. Time-use statistics can be useful for estimating the value of unpaid work and lead policy responses towards increasing FLFP. This study analyses the report on Time Use in India-2019 to draw insights from data on women’s disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic and caregiving services. It is argued that this has implications for their participation in the labour market. The patriarchal structure of the family pushes the onus of domestic labour on women. This confines them to home-based, poorly remunerated and informal work, or excludes them from the labour market. Interventions in the form of generating non-agricultural job opportunities in rural areas, establishing infrastructural support mechanisms in workplaces and encouraging female education and employment can not only stimulate FLFP but also help to address the crisis of jobless growth.

scholarly journals Disability and Labour Force Participation in Cameroon

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zamo-akono Christian
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Informal Sector ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Disability Status ◽  
Econometric Tests ◽  
Specific Human Capital

This paper examines the effect of disability on labour force participation using the Cameroon 2007 Household Survey. Statistical and econometric tests indicate that disability represents a barrier to employment in the Cameroon labour market. For instance, disability status reduces men’s probability of getting into the labour market by 0.8% for the public sector, 0.05% for the formal private sector and by 2.9% for the informal sector. Other noteworthy results are the fact that women face greater constraints in entering the labour market and investments in general and specific human capital increase the probability of getting a job in the Cameroon.

scholarly journals The “Family 500+” programme and female labour force participation in Poland. Demographic and economic determinants

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-43
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Bartosik ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Business Cycle ◽  
Labour Supply ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Female Labour Supply ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Female Labour ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Business Cycle ◽  
The Impact

The paper investigates the effect of child cash benefit “Family 500+” on the female labour supply in Poland, taking into account demographic and cyclical determinants. The study is based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Polish Central Statistical Office quarterly data. The analyses cover the period of 2016–2018. The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is the measure of labour supply. The analysis uses a counterfactual method to determine the impact of demographic and behavioural changes on female labour supply. To identify the causes of the economic inactivity of women (adopted by LFS), decomposition of the growth rate of economically inactive women is applied. The effect of the business cycle on female labour supply is analysed using OLS recursive regression. The study found that the LFPR of women aged 25–44 decreased after 2015. This was related to the cash transfers under the “Family 500+” programme and the increasing number of economically inactive women by reason of “family and household responsibilities”. At the same time, changes in the demographic structure contributed positively to the LFPR of women aged 25–44, while the business cycle did not have a significant impact on it. OLS recursive regression showed that in the 25–44 age group, the introduction of “Family 500+” coincided with changes in the relationships between the LFPR, the percentage of the “discouraged”, economically inactive women by reason of “family responsibilities” and the unemployment rate.

scholarly journals Female Labour Force Participation Rates in Rural Pakistan: Some Fundamental Explanations and Policy Implications

1987 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ghaffar Chaudhry ◽  
Zubeda Khan
Keyword(s):  
Labour Supply ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
Female Labour ◽  
Gainful Employment ◽  
Productive Activities ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Working Age Population

Labour supply is a key element in socio-economic development, and although the size, growth and composition of population have a strong bearing on its supply in an economy, the actual labour supply is a function of the labour force participation rate defined as the ratio of the population engaged in or seeking gainful employment to the working-age population. In Pakistan gainful employment means not only work for pay or profit but also unpaid help from family members, and the working-age population refers to the group of those aged 10 years or more. Although the use of labour force for computing participation rates has been criticised on the ground that it lays undue emphasis on market activities which have little relevance tb the less developed countries, particularly to the rural sector, (Standing 1978), it is nonetheless useful in studying household decisions regarding allocation of available time between productive and non-productive activities (Rees 1973). It is basically this division of labour between productive and non-productive activities that sheds light on the degree of development of an economy and, therefore, on the organization of factors of production (Yotopoulos 1986). The significance of rural participation rates, especially those of females, is noteworthy in this regard as there is a positive association between female productive work and the level of development achieved (Denti 1968). Female participation rates are also important for a proper understanding of the productive and reproductive roles of the population. As more than 70 percent of rural population depends on agriculture for its livelihood and rural females are nearly half of the total, their participation rates may be of critical importance in determining the rates of saving, investment and productivity in agriculture. It may also be noted that availability of labour in agriculture is also a function of the ready availability of female labour, especially for such operations as are performed exclusively by females, e.g. cotton picking.

scholarly journals The Impact of Self-Assessed Health on Labour Supply

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Roberts
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Labour Supply ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Weighted Least Squares ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Area Unit ◽  
The Impact

Health has long been recognised as an influence on labour supply. To date there has been little New Zealand research on this topic. This paper uses census area unit level data from the 1996 Census to estimate the effects of changes in the prevalence of self-assessed disability and health problems on the labour force participation race. The best results were obtained from questions asking about the effect of health on ability to carry out common everyday activities, and having a long-term disability. Despite the use of aggregate data the goodness of fit of the models was low (approximately 0.50). Coefficients on non-health variables were robust to changes in the specification of the health variable. The elasticity of labour force participation rates with respect to ill health varied between -0.02 and 0.02. The use of grouped data is less than ideal, and the impact of different corrections for this data structure is explored. The weighted least squares methods used in this paper have been argued to be inefficient if group sizes vary widely, and this is an area for future research with the current dataset. Future research directions with New Zealand survey data are suggested.

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