Christopher Worswick

Education and Labor Market Participation of Women in Asia: Evidence from Five Countries

This paper contributes to the understanding of household decisions of womens labor market participation in Asian societies. It considers the possible impacts of a wifes education on labor participation decisions within the context of a collective model of household bargaining. An empirical analysis of the determinants of participation of married women is also carried out through the use of household-level data from Indonesia Korea the Philippines Sri Lanka and Thailand. It is noted that this cross-country analysis using comparable data allows for the comparison of the determinants of womens participation in countries with different income levels stages of development and cultural characteristics. Overall results indicate that the determinants of womens labor force participation rates in Asia vary dramatically across countries. Evidence suggests that there is no single relationship between womens education and labor force participation in Asia. Hence it is important to consider the cultural context when trying to predict the effect of policies that increase womens education levels on womens participation in the labor force.

Education Expenditure Responses to Crop Loss in Indonesia: A Gender Bias

This paper studies the impact of crop loss on the level of educational expenditure of Indonesian households using data from the 1993 Indonesian Family Life Survey. The data are unique in that they contain self-reported information on crop loss and on household responses to crop loss. Thirty-four percent of households that experience a crop loss report that they responded by cutting household expenditure.

The Labor Market as a Smoothing Device: Labor Supply Responses to Crop Loss

The paper studies the way in which labor supply responses enable households to smooth consumption in the face of crop loss. The 1993 Indonesian Family Life Survey is unusual because it contains self-reported information on crop loss and on household responses to crop loss. Of those households that report a crop loss, 41.6% also report that they responded by taking an extra job. Using these self-reported measures, the authors find evidence which suggests that the income associated with this shock-induced labor supply is important in allowing the household to avoid reducing consumption expenditure. Household members, however, do not seem to increase their total hours of work. They appear to just reallocate their time from household farming to other labor market activities.

Labor Market Participation of Urban Women in Southeast Asia by Migration Status: Evidence from Microdata

Labor Market participation decisions of migrant and non-migrant women residing in urban areas of Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are analyzed using household survey data. MIgrant women are at least as likely to work in the urban labor market as are non-migrant women, ceteris paribus. Duration of residence in the urban area was not found to be a significant determinant of ever-married womens participation decisions. Never-married women in the Philippines have higher labor force participation rates than non-migrant women with this difference being smaller for women with more years of residence in the urban area.