IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2021-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Female labour force participation in sub-Saharan Africa: A cohort analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas Backhaus
  • Elke Loichinger

Abstract

Female labour force participation rates have stagnated in sub-Saharan Africa since the turn of the millennium. This paper aims to explain this aggregate pattern by decomposing it into the labour supply behaviour of different birth cohorts and age groups. Using representative and repeated census data from a heterogeneous sample of sub-Saharan African countries, we show that declining female labour supply at early working age is explained by increasing school attendance among young female cohorts.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Backhaus & Elke Loichinger, 2021. "Female labour force participation in sub-Saharan Africa: A cohort analysis," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-60, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-60
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2021-60-female-labour-force-participation-sub-Saharan-Africa.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephan Klasen, 2019. "What Explains Uneven Female Labor Force Participation Levels and Trends in Developing Countries?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 161-197.
    2. Osili, Una Okonkwo & Long, Bridget Terry, 2008. "Does female schooling reduce fertility? Evidence from Nigeria," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 57-75, August.
    3. Oriana Bandiera & Niklas Buehren & Robin Burgess & Markus Goldstein & Selim Gulesci & Imran Rasul & Munshi Sulaiman, 2020. "Women's Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 210-259, January.
    4. Catalina Herrera & David E Sahn & Kira M Villa, 2019. "Teen Fertility and Female Employment Outcomes: Evidence from Madagascar," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 28(3), pages 277-303.
    5. Esther Duflo & Pascaline Dupas & Michael Kremer, 2021. "The Impact of Free Secondary Education: Experimental Evidence from Ghana," NBER Working Papers 28937, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Esther Duflo & Pascaline Dupas & Michael Kremer, 2015. "Education, HIV, and Early Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(9), pages 2757-2797, September.
    7. Seema Jayachandran, 2021. "Social Norms as a Barrier to Women’s Employment in Developing Countries," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(3), pages 576-595, September.
    8. Van den Broeck, Goedele & Kilic, Talip, 2019. "Dynamics of off-farm employment in Sub-Saharan Africa: A gender perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 81-99.
    9. Palacios-Lopez, Amparo & Christiaensen, Luc & Kilic, Talip, 2017. "How much of the labor in African agriculture is provided by women?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 52-63.
    10. Bloom, David E. & Kuhn, Michael & Prettner, Klaus, 2017. "Africa'S Prospects For Enjoying A Demographic Dividend," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(1), pages 63-76, March.
    11. Felix Kwame Yeboah & Thomas S. Jayne, 2018. "Africa’s Evolving Employment Trends," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(5), pages 803-832, May.
    12. Owen Ozier, 2018. "The Impact of Secondary Schooling in Kenya: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 53(1), pages 157-188.
    13. João Pedro & Amer Hasan & Diana Goldemberg & Koen Geven & Syedah Aroob Iqbal, 2021. "Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes: A Set of Global Estimates [Tackling Inequity in Education during and after COVID-19]," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 36(1), pages 1-40.
    14. Yeboah, F. Kwame & Jayne, T.S., 2016. "Africa’s Evolving Employment Structure," Food Security International Development Working Papers 246956, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    15. Hagen Kruse & Emmanuel Mensah & Kunal Sen & Gaaitzen de Vries, 2021. "A manufacturing renaissance? Industrialization trends in the developing world," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-28, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Gordon Abekah‐Nkrumah & Patrick Opoku Asuming & Hadrat Yusif, 2019. "Duration of High School Education and Youth Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in Ghana," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 617-631, October.
    17. Sher Verick, 2014. "Female labor force participation in developing countries," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-87, September.
    18. Backhaus, Andreas, 2020. "Skills in African Labor Markets and Implications for Migration to Europe," Kiel Working Papers 2150, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    19. Keyes, Katherine M. & Utz, Rebecca L. & Robinson, Whitney & Li, Guohua, 2010. "What is a cohort effect? Comparison of three statistical methods for modeling cohort effects in obesity prevalence in the United States, 1971-2006," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1100-1108, April.
    20. repec:iza:izawol:journl:y:2014:p:87 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. repec:aer:wpaper:150 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Stephan Klasen & TU THI NGOC Le & Janneke Pieters & Manuel Santos Silva, 2021. "What Drives Female Labour Force Participation? Comparable Micro-level Evidence from Eight Developing and Emerging Economies," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 417-442, March.
    23. Claudia Goldin & Joshua Mitchell, 2017. "The New Life Cycle of Women's Employment: Disappearing Humps, Sagging Middles, Expanding Tops," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 161-182, Winter.
    24. Keats, Anthony, 2018. "Women's schooling, fertility, and child health outcomes: Evidence from Uganda's free primary education program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 142-159.
    25. Anne GOUJON & Samir K. C. & Markus SPERINGER & Bilal BARAKAT & Michaela POTANCOKOVÀ, 2016. "A Harmonized Dataset on Global Educational Attainment between 1970 and 2060 - An Analytical Window into Recent Trends and Future Prospects in Human Capital Development," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 315-363, September.
    26. Sher Verick, 2018. "Female labor force participation and development," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-87, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brudevold-Newman, Andrew, 2021. "Expanding access to secondary education: Evidence from a fee reduction and capacity expansion policy in kenya," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Musaddiq, Tareena & Said, Farah, 2023. "Educate the girls: Long run effects of secondary schooling for girls in Pakistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    3. Finlay, Jocelyn E., 2021. "Women’s reproductive health and economic activity: A narrative review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    4. Marshall Makate & Chamunorwa Nyamuranga, 2023. "The long‐term impact of education on dietary diversity among women in Zimbabwe," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 897-923, May.
    5. Gordon Abekah‐Nkrumah & Patrick Opoku Asuming & Hadrat Yusif, 2022. "The impact of an additional year in high school on academic performance at university: Evidence from a policy experiment in Ghana," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(6), November.
    6. Frederik Wild & David Stadelmann, 2024. "Heterogeneous Effects of Women's Schooling on Fertility, Literacy and Work: Evidence from Burundi's Free Primary Education Policy," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 33(1), pages 67-91.
    7. Stephanie Psaki & Nicole Haberland & Barbara Mensch & Lauren Woyczynski & Erica Chuang, 2022. "Policies and interventions to remove gender‐related barriers to girls' school participation and learning in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of the evidence," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), March.
    8. Vo, Thang T. & Truong, Thiet-Ha, 2023. "Gender division of household workforce in Vietnam: Role of international trade and fertility," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1696-1718.
    9. Sana Khan & Gianna Claudia Giannelli & Lucia Ferrone, 2024. "Can Maternal Education Enhance Children's Dietary Diversity and Nutritional Outcomes? Evidence from 2003 Education Reform in Kenya," Working Papers - Economics wp2024_12.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    10. Miron Tequame & Nyasha Tirivayi, 2015. "Higher education and fertility: Evidence from a natural experiment in Ethiopia," CINCH Working Paper Series 1509, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health, revised Aug 2015.
    11. David E. Bloom & Michael Kuhn & Klaus Prettner, 2022. "Modern Infectious Diseases: Macroeconomic Impacts and Policy Responses," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 85-131, March.
    12. Luke Chicoine, 2021. "Free Primary Education, Fertility, and Women’s Access to the Labor Market: Evidence from Ethiopia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 480-498.
    13. Hélène Giacobino & Elise Huillery & Bastien Michel & Mathilde Sage, 2022. "Schoolgirls Not Brides: Secondary Education as a Shield Against Child Marriage," Working Papers DT/2022/01, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    14. Cummins, Neil, 2022. "The Causal Effects of Education on Age at Marriage and Marital Fertility," CEPR Discussion Papers 17398, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clarke, Damian & Walther, Selma, 2022. "Women's Careers and Family Formation," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1120, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Chen, Jiwei & Guo, Jiangying, 2022. "The effect of female education on fertility: Evidence from China’s compulsory schooling reform," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    17. Pieters, Janneke & Klasen, Stephan, 2020. "Randomization for women’s economic empowerment? Lessons and limitations of randomized experiments," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    18. Kountouris, Yiannis, 2020. "Higher education and fertility: Evidence from reforms in Greece," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Katy Bergstrom & Berk Özler, 2023. "Improving the Well-Being of Adolescent Girls in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 38(2), pages 179-212.
    20. Fjolla Kondirolli & Naveen Sunder, 2022. "Mental health effects of education," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(S2), pages 22-39, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour supply; Gender; Sub-Saharan Africa; Demographic dividend; Female labour force participation;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.