Shahina Amin

Poverty and Other Determinants of Child Labor in Bangladesh

In this research we examine poverty and other determinants of child labor in Bangladesh. We define income quintiles as a means of measuring family poverty and add child and family characteristics to our model. We estimate the likelihood that a child will work, using separate logistic regression models for younger and older boys and girls in urban and rural areas. Our results support the notion that a familys poverty affects the probability that a child will work; keeping children away from work is a luxury these families cannot afford. Moreover, it is important to examine separate demographic groups in order to fully understand the determinants of child labor in Bangladesh since the effects of child and family variables on the probability that a child will work differ among these groups.

Income, Education, and Three Dimensions of Religiosity in the USA

We use American Time Use Survey data and a two-part econometric model to investigate the relationship of income and education to religiosity in the USA. We find some evidence that people are less likely to be religious as their income increases and that religious people spend less time performing religious activities as their incomes rise. The effect of additional education is ambiguous. We also find that while women are more likely to be religious than men and immigrants are more likely to be religious than natives, among religious people there is no significant difference in religiosity by gender or origin.

Occupational choices of working children in Bangladesh

The article looks into the determinants of occupational choices of working children in Bangladesh. Using data from 6668 Bangladeshi working children aged 5 through 14, the article estimates several binary and multinomial logit regressions, separately for boys and girls. The article confirms that most children work in the informal sector where formal sector’s jurisdiction and regulations are absent. Specifically, the article finds that children are least likely to work in the service occupation and are more likely to work in the textile sector. The findings highlight the diversity in the occupational distribution of child workers by gender and show how their individual and family characteristics influence occupational choices. The service sector, which comprises of mostly maids, is a hidden sector. This sector makes children vulnerable to abuse. Thus, it is suggested that policy makers need to come up with effective legislations that would protect the children who work in the ‘hidden informal’ sector.

The effect of religion on women's labor force participation rates in Indonesia

ABSTRACT Modest increases in womens labor force participation rates could boost world GDP by at least six trillion dollars; full equality for women could increase world GDP by

A double-hurdle analysis of the gender earnings gap for working children in Bangladesh

28 trillion. One factor limiting womens labor force participation may be religion. We test the effect of religion on womens labor force participation rates in Indonesia. Using data from Indonesias 2010 Census, we run a logit model for married rural women, married urban women, single rural women, and single urban women. We find that holding other factors equal, married Hindu women in urban areas are as much as 31 percentage points more likely to work than married Muslim urban women, while married Confucian women in rural areas are as much as 31 percentage points less likely to work than married Muslim rural women. These and other results are robust across different specifications and are both economically and statistically significant.

Life-cycle labor supply of married women and family income inequality in Malaysia

Child labor continues to be pervasive throughout the developing world. Although the number of child workers has declined, the ILO’s 2010 estimate remained at 215 million children. An estimated 100 million girls are involved in child labor, often for low pay. Girls are often engaged in some of the worst forms of child labor, sometimes in illegal activities such as prostitution. Studies regarding the gender earnings gap among adults are abundant, but there is very little economic research on girls’ unequal treatment in the labor market in terms of pay. In this paper, we measure and analyze the gender earning gap between working boys and girls in Bangladesh, those who are paid as well as those who receive no pay. In order to investigate the gender gap in the earnings of children, we use the 2002-03 National Child Labour Survey of Bangladesh and limit our analysis to children ages 5 through 14, yielding 50,263 cases. Of these children, 6,668 performed market work; 2,283 were paid for their work and 4,385 were unpaid workers. We present descriptive statistics and then apply the Double-Hurdle model to adjust for selectivity bias and to include the working children who do not earn a wage. We then estimate Mincerian earnings equations for a pooled sample of children who perform market work, using four alternative models. We find evidence of a significant gender earnings gap in the overall child labor market in Bangladesh with a raw earnings gap of 36 percent. We specify four alternative Double-Hurdle regression models in which we include alternative sets of independent variables. All four models show a statistically significant wage gap ranging in magnitude from 31 percent to 29 percent. The magnitude of the gap is large, due mainly to a greater proportion of girls in unpaid work. A child’s own characteristics, family characteristics, as well as industrial segregation play important roles in explaining the gap. Girls’ earnings remain well below boys’ earnings even when all measured characteristics are included in the analysis. Our results show that the concentration of girls’ in unpaid work contributes to the earnings gap, yet we understand the importance of part-time (often unpaid) work in allowing girls to pursue their education. Policies are needed that encourage both educational and employment opportunities for girls in safe environments.

Market Work and Household Work as Deterrents to Schooling in Bangladesh

Using the first and second Malaysian Family Life Surveys, the paper analyzes the life-cycle variation in the labor supply of married women and the impact of this variation on family income inequality. Using the coefficient of variation as an indicator of income inequality and different counterfactuals, the empirical results show that women’s earnings equalize family income inequality. Among women who are in their child-bearing and child-rearing years, rural women increase the magnitude of the equalizing effect, while urban women increase the dispersion a little. In the post-child-bearing and child-rearing years, all women decrease family income inequality and the magnitude of the equalizing effect increases. To carry out this investigation, the paper traces the growth of labor force participation and earnings of married women from 1976 to 1988.