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

Andreas Backhaus and Elke Loichinger

No wp-2021-60, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

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.

Keywords: Labour supply; Gender; Sub-Saharan Africa; Demographic dividend; Female labour force participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Female Labor Force Participation in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Cohort Analysis (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-60

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