The effect of domestic work on girls' schooling: Evidence from Egypt

Ragui Assaad; Deborah Levison; Nadia Zibani

doi:10.1080/13545700903382729

The effect of domestic work on girls' schooling: Evidence from Egypt

Ragui Assaad
, Deborah Levison
, Nadia Zibani

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

73 Scopus citations

Abstract

In Egypt, girls' work primarily takes the form of domestic tasks, which are not considered in many studies of child labor. This paper investigates the effect of girls' work on their school attendance. It uses a modified bivariate probit approach to estimate the effect of work on schooling while allowing for the simultaneous determination of the two outcomes. It presents evidence that the substantial burden of girls' domestic work leads to lower rates of school attendance. Policies that attempt to ban the labor-force work of children will have practically no effect on girls' education in Egypt, while interventions reducing the drudgery of household labor through, for example, improved water and sanitation infrastructure, have better prospects for success.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	79-128
Number of pages	50
Journal	Feminist Economics
Volume	16
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13545700903382729
State	Published - Jan 2010

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Cristobal Ridao-Cano for allowing us to adapt his Stata program for a switching probit model. We are grateful to Dennis Ahlburg, Ray Langsten, Brian McCall, David Post, and Insan Tunali for detailed and valuable comments. Sara Kaufman, Pingkang Yu, Yi Zheng, and Hongliang Zhang provided competent research assistance. We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance and technical support from the International Center for Economic Growth (ICEG) through its Economic Policy Initiative Consortium project in Egypt, which is funded by USAID.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 4 Quality Education
SDG 5 Gender Equality
SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Child labor
Domestic work
Egypt
Gender
Household economics
Schooling

Publisher link

10.1080/13545700903382729

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title = "The effect of domestic work on girls' schooling: Evidence from Egypt",

abstract = "In Egypt, girls' work primarily takes the form of domestic tasks, which are not considered in many studies of child labor. This paper investigates the effect of girls' work on their school attendance. It uses a modified bivariate probit approach to estimate the effect of work on schooling while allowing for the simultaneous determination of the two outcomes. It presents evidence that the substantial burden of girls' domestic work leads to lower rates of school attendance. Policies that attempt to ban the labor-force work of children will have practically no effect on girls' education in Egypt, while interventions reducing the drudgery of household labor through, for example, improved water and sanitation infrastructure, have better prospects for success.",

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AU - Levison, Deborah

AU - Zibani, Nadia

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Cristobal Ridao-Cano for allowing us to adapt his Stata program for a switching probit model. We are grateful to Dennis Ahlburg, Ray Langsten, Brian McCall, David Post, and Insan Tunali for detailed and valuable comments. Sara Kaufman, Pingkang Yu, Yi Zheng, and Hongliang Zhang provided competent research assistance. We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance and technical support from the International Center for Economic Growth (ICEG) through its Economic Policy Initiative Consortium project in Egypt, which is funded by USAID.

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N2 - In Egypt, girls' work primarily takes the form of domestic tasks, which are not considered in many studies of child labor. This paper investigates the effect of girls' work on their school attendance. It uses a modified bivariate probit approach to estimate the effect of work on schooling while allowing for the simultaneous determination of the two outcomes. It presents evidence that the substantial burden of girls' domestic work leads to lower rates of school attendance. Policies that attempt to ban the labor-force work of children will have practically no effect on girls' education in Egypt, while interventions reducing the drudgery of household labor through, for example, improved water and sanitation infrastructure, have better prospects for success.

AB - In Egypt, girls' work primarily takes the form of domestic tasks, which are not considered in many studies of child labor. This paper investigates the effect of girls' work on their school attendance. It uses a modified bivariate probit approach to estimate the effect of work on schooling while allowing for the simultaneous determination of the two outcomes. It presents evidence that the substantial burden of girls' domestic work leads to lower rates of school attendance. Policies that attempt to ban the labor-force work of children will have practically no effect on girls' education in Egypt, while interventions reducing the drudgery of household labor through, for example, improved water and sanitation infrastructure, have better prospects for success.

KW - Child labor

KW - Domestic work

KW - Egypt

KW - Gender

KW - Household economics

KW - Schooling

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JO - Feminist Economics

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The effect of domestic work on girls' schooling: Evidence from Egypt

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

Publisher link

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