Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy (original) (raw)
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Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2010
We use a model of human capital investment and activity choice to explain facts describing gender differentials in the levels and returns to human capital investments. These include the higher return to and level of schooling, the small effect of healthiness on wages, and the large effect of healthiness on schooling for females relative to males. The model incorporates gender differences in the level and responsiveness of brawn to nutrition in a Royeconomy setting in which activities reward skill and brawn differentially. Empirical evidence from rural Bangladesh provides support for the model and the importance of the distribution of brawn.
Working paper, 2018
This paper explores how gendered roles in agriculture impact household demand for labor saving services. Previous literature has indicated that the adoption of mechanized technologies can improve agricultural productivity and returns for smallholder farmers, but that the demand for such services often reflects the valuation only of the male household member. That imbalance suggests that gender-based frictions in the allocation of labor across agricultural activities may partially explain inconsistent adoption of labor-saving technology in agriculture and slow development of robust domestic markets for certain custom hire services. We explore this possibility using survey data on willingness to pay for various types of agricultural services in Ethiopia. We find that, controlling for both household and activity fixed affects, a higher proportion of female labor in a given activity is associated with a lower reported willingness to pay for hiring an outside service to perform that activity. Further, this result is strictly limited to male-headed households; the relationship between the relative female intensity of an activity and WTP in female households is positive. Despite the negative relationship between WTP and female intensity of a given activity, WTP in maleheaded households is increasing in the amount of female labor, but not in the amount of male labor. We speculate that this counter-intuitive result likely owes to inefficiencies in the bargaining process over, and subsequent distribution of, drudgery, as well as limited female autonomy in the allocation of saved labor.
The Journal of Developing Areas, 2010
In this paper, two approaches (labor efficiency and separate factors approach) and two production functions (a ray-homothetic function and the Cobb-Douglas function), are used to estimate the productivity of female versus male farm laborers in the traditional agricultural economy of Nepal. The hypothesis that female laborers would be less productive than males due to the disparities in physical and human capital, originating from economic and socio-cultural discrimination, is tested. The study results confirm this expectation. However, the study suggests that once differences in irrigation and type of seeds used by male and female farmers are included in the model, the magnitude of the difference is reduced and the estimated coefficient becomes insignificant. The ray-homothetic function does best in yielding realistic results suggesting that congestion is an important feature of Nepalese agriculture supporting the notion that there may be disguised unemployment in the sense that too much labor is used in agriculture and that empirical analysis should accommodate this possibility when considering functional form.
Gender Wage Differentials in Rural Employment in Bangladesh
Journal of Quantitative Economics Journal of the Indian Econometric Society, 1999
This study quantifies occupational segregation and wage discrimination in rural labour market of Bangladesh. Wage equations for seven employment categories were estimated applying Heckman's two-step procedure. Multinomial logit analysis was applied to estimate occupational attainment for males from a set of personal characteristics and then an occupational distribution for females was simulated. Data set used was a part of an eight-village census undertaken by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. Ideally the capacity to transform time and strength of labour into income between men and women should differ due to the difference in productivity. This analysis shows that more than seventy per cent of total gender pay gap remains unjustified and is due mainly to the concentration to the low paid work owing to job discrimination. Development programmes in the rural sector have achieved some success in bringing poor women into the paid job but failed to reduce within job discrimination. Attempts to reduce poverty will not bring the desired goal unless women have free access to paid work and the unjustified job segregation and pay discrimination are considerably reduced.
Rural Women Discovered: New Sources of Capital and Labour in Bangladesh
Development and Change, 1983
Bangladesh, as a relatively recent independent country is enjoying a 'development boom' in the form of massive aid, grants and loans flooding the country from western and socialist countries alike. In one sense the boom is stimulated by western interests in keeping Bangladesh firmly tied to the West, and by socialist, primarily Soviet, concern in offsetting possible Chinese interests in the area. Before Independence, however, the area that is now Bangladesh The authors wish 10 acknowledge the help and encouragement received from Alex Dupuy, Wanda Dupuy, John Useem and Ruth Hill Useem, who carefully read and commented on earlier drafts of this paper. The authors' names were listed by a toss of the coin, and their contributions to the article are equal.
Gender differentials in agricultural productivity: evidence from Nepalese household data
MPRA Paper, 2008
This study analyzes productivity differentials between men and women in the peasant agriculture in Nepal. Both Cobb-Douglas and translog production functions are estimated using data from the Nepal Living Standard Survey 2003/04. Evidence is found for higher value of marginal product of adult family male than adult female, while marginal products of other inputs are found to be relatively higher than the prevailing market wages and prices, implying that these inputs have become gradually a binding constraint in production. Male managed farms produce more output per hectare with higher command in market input use, obtaining credit, and receiving agricultural extension services than female managed farms. In contrast, the result does not clearly support the hypothesis of separability or aggregation of male and female labour, but there is little justification of weak separability. Moreover, head's sex as proxy for farm manager does not show any difference between male and female managed farms. However, the coefficients of location and household characteristics show significant variations in farm output among ethnic and caste groups residing in different ecological belts of Nepal. Overall, adult male labour is found to contribute more in production process than adult female labour.
World Development, 2012
Income from rural microcredit borrowing can empower women and consequently lead to investments in children's education and health. This article examines the effect of male and female self-employment returns to borrowing in rural Bangladesh on intra-household resource allocation and decision making abilities and how these effects differ with different borrowing sources. Household expenditure patterns measure intra-household allocation. The results show that female borrowers are better able to allocate their income toward goods more valuable to them and make major household decisions when their income increases. This serves as evidence of increased empowerment or bargaining power of rural women in Bangladesh.
Household schooling and child labor decisions in rural Bangladesh
Journal of Asian Economics, 2007
Using empirical methods, this paper examines household schooling and child labor decisions in rural Bangladesh. The results suggest the following: poverty and low parental education are associated with lower schooling and greater child labor; assetowning households are more likely to have children combine child labor with schooling; households choose the same activity for all children within the household, regardless of gender; there is a weak association between direct costs and household decisions; finally, higher child wages encourage households to practice child labor.