Racha Ramadan

Individual and Households Determinants of Women Empowerment: Application to the Case of Egypt

This research deals with women’s empowerment as an outcome of interest by defining the different individual and socio-demographic determinants that affect women’s empowerment in the Egyptian society. The paper analyzed two dimensions of women’s empowerment; the decision-making and the mobility aspects of Egyptian women. Using the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) 2012, we estimated a decision-making index and a mobility index. Our results came in line with the literature; age, education, employment, poverty status, number of children, having an adult son in addition to a woman’s husband, and her father’s characteristics appeared as significant determinants of empowerment. Further, most of these determinants, showed varying impact depending on the dimension of empowerment studied. The regional context was found to be very important in explaining Egyptian women’s empowerment. Context was not only found to be an important determinant of women’s empowerment as measured by our two indices, but it was also found to affect the impact of the other individual and socio demographic determinants on women’s empowerment.

Inter-Group Expenditure Gaps In The Arab Region And Their Determinants: Application To Egypt, Jordan, Palestine And Tunisia: Review of Income and Wealth

Economic inequality across socio‐demographic groups in the Arab region is high and growing. This paper evaluates the differentials in household expenditures across rural/urban areas, female/male‐headed households, non‐educated/educated‐headed households and non‐employed/employed‐headed households, in ten Household Income and Expenditure surveys from four Arab countries: Egypt (2008, 2010 and 2012), Jordan (2006 and 2010), Palestine (2007, 2010 and 2011) and Tunisia (2005 and 2010). Unconditional quantile regressions are used to analyze the differentials across the population distribution and to decompose them by source. Results show that Egypt and Tunisia exhibit relatively high expenditure gaps across rural/urban and non‐educated/educated groups. Expenditure gaps in Jordan and Palestine and those across non‐employed/employed and female/male headed households are more moderate. Overall, education and the return to it, geographic location and household composition play an important role in bringing about, as well as reducing, economic inequality across social groups.

Empowerment is a Community Affair: Community Level Determinants of Married Women's Empowerment in Egypt

This paper examines the contextual and community-level determinants of multidimensional women’s empowerment in Egypt, while accounting for the usual individual and household level factors typically included in studies of women’s empowerment. The paper analyzes two dimensions of women’s empowerment: the decision-making and the mobility dimensions by means of two indices constructed from various survey questions relating to these dimensions. We use data from the Population Census of 2006 and the Demographic Health Survey of 2008 to construct community and governorate-level contextual variables to complement the individual-level data we obtain from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey of 2012 (ELMPS 2012). In line with the literature, the determinants that are relevant to the decision-making and mobility dimensions of women’s empowerment turned out to be quite different, confirming that “empowerment�? is a multi- dimensional phenomenon, with women relatively empowered in some aspects of their lives but not in others. Moreover, our results show that context plays an important role in determining women’s empowerment in Egypt after controlling for a variety of individual and household-level characteristics. These results highlight the importance of viewing women’s empowerment, and hence development as social and normative transformations rather than as just resulting from shifts in individual conditions, attitudes and behaviors. Thus, empowering Egyptian women will require changing community norms and values about gender relations rather than simply providing greater educational and employment opportunities for women.

Ever married women’s participation in labor market in Egypt: constraints and opportunities

ABSTRACT This research studies the individual, households and community determinants affecting Egyptian woman’s decision to enter the labor force and affecting her employment status. Using the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey ELMPS, 2012, five probit models were estimated for ever-married women. The first model is about Egyptian women’s decision to participate in the labor force. Once she is in the labor force, the second model studies the determinants of being employed. Among employed women, three employment types are tackled in the remaining three models; being employed in the public sector (model 3), being a private wage worker (model 4) and being self-employed (model 5). As found in the literature, the results show that there is a strong dependence between woman’s education and employment type. Moreover, the results confirm the role played by the mother’s employment status in her daughter’s labor force participation. Finally, the community characteristics play a significant role in affecting women’s decision in entering the labor force. Once society accepts the integration of women in the labor market and not only being responsible for care and house work, individual characteristics and households characteristics influenced her decision of which employment type to choose.

Inter-Group Expenditure Gaps in the Arab Region and Their Determinants: Application to Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Tunisia

Inequality across socio-demographic groups is high and growing across the Arab region. This may have implications for intergenerational mobility, poverty traps for large segments of population, social polarization, tension and even political stability. This paper evaluates the differentials in household expenditures across rural/urban areas, female/male-headed households, non-educated/educated-headed households and nonemployed/employed-headed households, in eleven Household Income and Expenditure surveys from five Arab countries: Egypt (2008, 2010 and 2012), Jordan (2006 and 2010), Palestine (2007, 2010 and 2011), Sudan (2009) and Tunisia (2005 and 2010). Unconditional quantile regressions are used to analyze the differentials across the population distribution and to decompose them by source. Household characteristics and returns to them that are responsible for the expenditure differentials are identified. Systematic trends over time are also evaluated.We find that Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia exhibit relatively high expenditure gaps across rural/urban and non-educated/educated groups, while the gaps in Jordan and Palestine, and those across non-employed/employed and female/male headed households are moderate. Changes in the gaps over time vary across countries and social groups, suggesting that the evolution of inequality is complex. Between 2008 and 2012 the rural/urban and education gaps decreased in Egypt while the gender and employment gaps increased, especially for the highest population decile. In Jordan, between 2006 and 2010, the rural/urban gap decreased across population quantiles, while the employment gap increased. The education gap increased for the poor but decreased for the rich, while the household-gender gap fell for the poor but increased for median and high expenditure households. In Palestine, between 2007 and 2011, the rural/urban gap decreased for the rich while it increased for the poor. The gender and employment gaps decreased for both the poor and the rich, but the education gap increased. In Tunisia, between 2005 and 2010, the rural/urban gap increased both for the rich and the poor. The education gap increased for the poor but decreased for the rich. The employment and gender gaps fell significantly for poor and median-expenditure households but increased slightly for the rich.Overall, education and its return, geographic location, and household composition play an important role in the drive to reduce expenditure differentials across social groups in the Arab region. Public policy should focus on investing in human capital, facilitating equal access to developmental opportunities across regions and shaping family composition using better family planning programs.Inequality across demographic groups is high and growing across the Arab region. This has implications for intergenerational mobility, poverty traps for large fractions of population, social polarization, tension and even political instability. This paper evaluates the differentials in household expenditures across rural/urban areas, female/male-headed households, non-educated/educated-headed households and non-employed/employedheaded households, in eleven Household Income and Expenditure surveys from five Arab countries: Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Sudan and Tunisia. Unconditional quantile regressions are used to analyze the differentials across the population distribution and to decompose them by source. Household characteristics and returns to them that are responsible for the expenditure differentials are identified. Systematic trends over time are also evaluated. We find that Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia exhibit relatively high expenditure gaps across urban/rural and educated/non-educated groups, while the gaps in Jordan and Palestine, and those across employed/non-employed and male/female headed households are moderate. Changes in the gaps over time vary across countries and social groups, suggesting that the evolution of inequality is complex. Between 2008 and 2012 the rural/urban and education gaps decreased in Egypt while the gender and employment gaps increased, especially for the highest population decile. In Jordan, between 2006 and 2010, the rural/urban gap decreased across population quantiles, while the employment gap increased. The education gap increased for the poor but decreased for the rich, while the household-gender gap fell for the poor but increased for median and high expenditure households. In Palestine, between 2007 and 2011, the rural/urban gap decreased for the rich while it increased for the poor. The gender and employment gaps decreased for both the poor and the rich, but the education gap increased. In Tunisia, between 2005 and 2010, the rural/urban gap increased both for the rich and the poor. The education gap increased for the poor but decreased for the rich. The employment and gender gaps fell significantly for poor and median-expenditure households but increased slightly for the rich. Overall, education and its return, geographic location, and household composition play an important role in the drive to reduce expenditure differentials across social groups in the 1 Racha Ramadan: Assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political ScienceCairo University. E-mail: racha.ramadan@feps.edu.eg.