Fatma El-Hamidi

General or Vocational Schooling? Evidence on School Choice, Returns, and 'Sheepskin' Effects from Egypt 1998

In general, vocational education does not lead to higher wages. However, in some countries, labor markets are characterized by employment growth and skill shortages. In these, vocational schooling has produced higher wages and returns on investment than general education. Using 1998 Egyptian household survey, the study adds evidence to the debate on relative benefits of vocational education and of general education at the secondary level. The findings suggest that providing general education to the workforce followed by on-the-job training would provide the most benefit.

Is all work the same? A comparison of the determinants of female participation and hours of work in various employment states in Egypt

We provide evidence that pooling different forms of employment into a single category is not warranted in the case of female workers in Egypt. We show that the determinants of participation and hours of work in regular versus, casual paid work, agricultural versus, non-agricultural self-employment are markedly different. Our results show that the type and hours of work are largely determined by the point of a womans life-cycle, level of education, role in the household, and the employment status of male members of her household. We find different determinants of regular wage work and self-employment and unpaid family labor.

Early Retirement in the Government Sector in Egypt: Preferences, Determinants, and Policy Implications

This study looks at factors affecting the decision of early retirement for Egyptian government sector employees. The empirical analysis is based on 2005 nationally representative sample of government sector workers. Among the findings of this study are: women are more likely to retire earlier than men; good health status is associated with longer stay on the job; the level of education is not a determining factor for women, but it is for men; men plan to work after their early retirement; the presence of the working wife has a positive effect on her husband to retire early, yet a working husband discourages his wife from retiring early. Policy implications discussed timing of the announcement of the plans; the potential outcome of excessive payouts, as well as the need for the government to provide early retirees with necessary skills and training to plan their after retirement years.

The Gendered Aspects of MSEs in MENA: Evidence from Egypt and Turkey

This study attempts to shed light on the gendered aspect of MSEs (i.e. how the sectors of activities, income, growth, etc. differ by the gender of the entrepreneur) and tests some of the main claims of the rather modest available literature by means of an econometric analysis. The empirical work utilizes nationally representative MSE surveys conducted for Turkey and Egypt in 2001 and 2003 respectively (for brevity, we hereafter use “E&T” to refer to “Egypt and Turkey”). The working sample has 4136 and 4238 permanent establishments located in the urban areas of Egypt and Turkey, respectively. By identifying the sectors and types of activities females are more likely to thrive in, this study calls attention to those sectors where direct intervention by the government will be more effective, and provide some guidance for making proposals to further reduce the extent of gender-differences and practices in MSEs.