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on MENA - Middle East and North Africa |
| By: | Gasmi, Farid; Kouakou, Dorgyles Christ Maurel; Noumba Um, Paul; Milla, Pedro Rojas |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an empirical application and analysis of the social contract in countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The paper suggests a simple operational model that synthesizes a social contract’s three main characteristics: participation, protection, and provision, between a government and its citizens. This empirical “3-P” framework allows investigating the role that government provision and protection may have on citizen participation, which is particularly pertinent given the political and economic development of countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The paper compares the evaluation of the health of the social contract in countries in the Middle East and North Africa region to that of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The empirical evidence shows that the social benefits provided to citizens through improved delivery of basic services have come at the cost of impaired political participation. This feature of the social contract in the Middle East and North Africa may be considered one of the root causes of the social turmoil some countries have been struggling with in recent decades. Digital transformation is a potentially powerful channel through which the relationship between government and citizens can improve, and the paper finds that it has a three-year lagged positive effect on the quality of the social contract in the Middle East and North Africa and the effect is inversely U-shaped. This suggests that structural and institutional improvements are needed in countries in the Middle East and North Africa for the quality of their social contract to reach levels comparable to those of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. |
| Date: | 2023–05–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10455 |
| By: | Alam, Muneeza Mehmood; Bagnoli, Lisa Serena; Kerzhner, Tamara |
| Abstract: | There is increasing recognition that deficiencies in the public transport system impact men and women differently. While transport systems have been shown to play a significant role in women’s participation in the labor force globally, this topic has been little explored in the Middle East and North Africa. This paper examines the effect of the spatial accessibility, availability, and safety of public transportation on women’s labor market outcomes in three capital cities in the Middle East and North Africa—Amman in Jordan, Beirut in Lebanon, and Cairo in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The analysis uses three types of data collected for each city in 2022, namely, household mobility surveys, transit network data, and built environment audits. The paper investigates how the spatial accessibility of jobs in each city, the availability of public transportation close to residential locations, and the safety of public transit stops affect the labor force participation of women and their likelihood of employment. The main findings are that: (a) accessibility, availability, and safety appear to impact women’s labor force participation differentially in each city, and these impacts also vary by income level; and (b) although accessibility, availability, and safety appear to impact women’s labor force participation, they have overall little impact on women’s employment probability. The paper takes these two findings to imply that: (a) a one-size-fits-all-women solution is not appropriate when designing public transport systems; and (b) although public transport plays a critical role in improving women’s access to employment opportunities, complementary actions are needed to translate these gains into gainful employment. |
| Date: | 2023–04–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10404 |
| By: | Islam, Asif Mohammed |
| Abstract: | Data transparency about critical economic issues may be key to driving growth and enhancing trust in government in the Middle East and North Africa. Several knowledge products and technical analyses on the region have been greatly constrained by the lack of availability of detailed data, and the relatively outdated nature of many available datasets. The goal of this study is to ascertain the state of data systems in the Middle East and North Africa region. Through analysis of several indicators, with their limitations in mind, the study uses descriptive analyses and uncovers six stylized facts of the region: (i) developing economies in the Middle East and North Africa have poor data ecosystems, largely due to the prevalence of conflict; (ii) developing economies in the Middle East and North Africa as a group have experienced the largest deterioration in data systems over time; (iii) data systems in richer economies in the Middle East and North Africa region underperform relative to their income peers; (iv) Gulf Cooperation Council economies underperform in data openness, especially online access, despite having the resources for online features; (v) the regulatory framework for data (data infrastructure) is poor throughout the region, especially in Gulf Cooperation Council economies; and (vi) the dispersion of source data scores – a measure of availability and timeliness of micro data – in the region suggests that national statistical offices in the region could learn from each other. Furthermore, the study summarizes data availability and timeliness for specific macro, micro, and public health indicators for countries across the region. The need for forging a social contract for data is discussed, as well as the role international institutions can play through a statistics compact for the region. |
| Date: | 2023–03–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10346 |
| By: | Othman Gaga (Faculty of Economics and Management of settat, Hassan First University of Settat, Morocco); Said Karam (Faculty of Economics and Management of Settat Hassan First University of Settat); Nasredine Fathelkhir (Faculty of Economics and Management of Settat Hassan First University of Settat) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the role of financial reporting quality as a corporate governance mechanism in the Moroccan context. Drawing on Shleifer and Vishny's (1997) definition of corporate governance, which emphasizes investor protection, the research focuses on the agency relationship between creditors and firms. In a setting where ownership concentration reduces the traditional conflict between managers and shareholders, creditor protection becomes a key concern. This paper investigates conditional conservatism, particularly the timely recognition of losses, as a mechanism to mitigate information asymmetry and limit opportunistic behavior. Empirically, we test this hypothesis using an econometric model applied to a sample of 38 listed firms over the 2012–2021 period. The results indicate an asymmetric recognition of economic losses, while economic gains are not significantly reflected in accounting earnings. These findings confirm the adoption of a prudence-based accounting approach that aligns with creditor expectations. The study underscores the importance of financial reporting quality in corporate governance in Morocco and opens new avenues for future research on the institutional factors influencing this asymmetry. |
| Abstract: | Cet article analyse le rôle de la qualité du reporting financier comme mécanisme de gouvernance dans le contexte marocain. En s'appuyant sur la définition de la gouvernance de Shleifer et Vishny (1997), qui met l'accent sur la protection des investisseurs, l'étude s'intéresse particulièrement à la relation d'agence entre les créanciers et l'entreprise. Dans un contexte où la concentration de la propriété réduit le conflit traditionnel entre dirigeants et actionnaires, la protection des créanciers devient un enjeu central. L'article explore ainsi le conservatisme conditionnel, et plus précisément la reconnaissance opportune des pertes, comme mécanisme permettant de réduire l'asymétrie d'information et de limiter les comportements opportunistes. Sur le plan empirique, nous testons cette hypothèse à travers un modèle économétrique appliqué à un échantillon de 38 entreprises cotées sur la période 2012-2021. Les résultats révèlent une reconnaissance asymétrique des pertes économiques, tandis que les gains économiques ne sont pas significativement intégrés dans le résultat comptable. Ces résultats corroborent l'existence d'une stratégie de prudence comptable, alignée avec les attentes des créanciers. L'étude met ainsi en évidence l'importance de la qualité du reporting financier dans la gouvernance des entreprises marocaines et ouvre des perspectives de recherche sur les déterminants institutionnels de cette asymétrie. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Governance, Conditional Conservatism, Financial Reporting Quality, Timely Loss Recognition, Information asymmetry, Gouvernance d’entreprise, Conservatisme conditionnel, Qualité du reporting financier, Reconnaissance opportune des pertes, Asymétrie d’information |
| Date: | 2025–02–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04968743 |
| By: | Vahedi, Meisam; Akhtar, Iqbal |
| Abstract: | Islamic feminism in Iran is defined as the radical rethinking of religious and sacred texts from a feminist perspective. This research aims to show how Islamic feminism developed in Iran and discuss the philosophical and epistemological foundations of different discourses influencing that movement. This study utilizes documentary research methods. It shows that central to the development of Islamic feminism is the development of the reformist movement in Iran. Reformists believe that employing justice in Islamic laws requires a novel hermeneutic interpretation of sacred texts that account for absolute equality in men’s and women’s rights. However, traditional and neo-traditional jurists present different interpretations of the notion of justice regarding gender relations. They believe that since men and women have existential and inborn differences, they hold separate rights and duties, especially regarding their social and family roles. Accordingly, two kinds of law are needed to regulate their lives. Using reformist theories, Muslim feminists in Iran have challenged the traditional interpretation of sacred texts and called for women’s rights as equal to men’s in the Islamic constitution. |
| Date: | 2023–02–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:6rycu_v1 |
| By: | David G. Blanchflower; Alex Bryson |
| Abstract: | We examine the age profile of subjective wellbeing and illbeing in nine Asian countries (Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka) and seven Middle Eastern countries (Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen). We find the relationship between age and reported wellbeing differs according to the way the survey is conducted. In the Gallup World Poll, where the data are collected by interviewers face-to-face or by telephone (computer-aided telephone interviews, or CATI) the young are the happiest and the results are the same across the two survey modes. We find the same result in CATI surveys in the Global Flourishing Survey (GFS) of 2022-2024 in 7 Asian and Middle Eastern (AME) countries. However, when the GFS survey is conducted on the web (computer-aided web interview, or CAWI) wellbeing is u-shaped in age, and is highest among the oldest respondents. If we turn to negative affect measures (loneliness, anxiety, depression, worry) these rise with age using CATI but fall with age using CAWI. We look for survey mode switching in the age coefficient across 40 outcomes. In general, the switch is confined to subjective wellbeing and illbeing metrics. Switching does not occur when respondents are asked about their physical health, bodily pain, unemployment status, drinking and smoking, or personality-related questions. It appears that the mode effect is largely confined to how individuals rate their subjective wellbeing and illbeing. The results are suggestive of social desirability response bias which leads young people to under-report socially undesirable affective states to interviewers. |
| JEL: | I31 J13 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33475 |
| By: | Gansey, Romeo Jacky; Genoni, Maria Eugenia; Helmy, Imane Abdelfattah Ahmed Refaat |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the Arab Republic of Egypt’s economy and its people in many ways. By combining micro-simulations and imputation techniques, this paper models early impacts of the pandemic on household income and the role of cash transfers from the Government of Egypt in supporting households and workers. As expected, and consistent with other evidence, the estimates show that the pandemic shock decreased labor incomes and increased income poverty in Egypt. It was estimated that in fiscal year 2020, average household income per capita contracted by about 1.7 percent, and income poverty was about 2.2 percentage points higher, compared to a non-COVID-19 scenario for the same year, using the international poverty line of $3.65 a day (2017 purchasing power parity). Labor income losses were widespread across the country, disproportionately affecting informal workers. The results also suggest that expanded social protection cash transfers and targeted cash assistance to Egypt’s informal and tourism sectors played a substantial role in smoothing the initial labor income shock. In the absence of compensatory cash transfers, income poverty would have been 1.1 percentage points higher. The compensatory measures, in particular the cash transfer programs Takaful and Karama, preferentially protected rural households due to the programs’ targeting rules. Thus, households in urban areas were significantly more likely to become income poor, compared to those in rural settings. |
| Date: | 2023–05–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10440 |
| By: | Chaymaa Lotfy (Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Hassan II University, Morocco.); Yasmina Bennis Bennani (Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Hassan II University, Morocco.); Annie Cornet |
| Abstract: | This study explores the dynamics of career anchors shaped by organizational, individual, and societal determinants in relation to women's access to leadership positions in Moroccan sports federations. In a historically male-dominated setting, understanding these dynamics is essential for promoting more equitable and sustainable career progression. Between January and June 2024, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 female leaders from 12 federations, employing a qualitative interpretive approach and thematic analysis using NVivo 14. The findings highlight two anchors specific to the Moroccan socio-cultural context (family and social support and religious and cultural beliefs), which reveal the impact of cultural pressures and familial responsibilities that may hinder women's advancement. Additionally, six other career anchors prevail in sports: emotional and professional security, managerial competencies, resilient challenge, technical skills, transformative commitment, and global outlook. The interplay of individual, organizational, and societal factors, along with these career anchors, shows that older women seek to make a lasting impact, while younger women prioritize challenges. Family and cultural support helps balance personal life and ambitions, while the development of managerial skills and a supportive work environment proves crucial. Moreover, the economic context, religious beliefs, cultural norms, and international legal frameworks heavily influence women's career choices, prompting them to pursue stability, ethical alignment, and global opportunities. This study provides decision-makers with a clear understanding of the factors shaping women's career trajectories and suggests tangible actions (fostering inclusive governance, advancing gender equality, and shifting mindsets) that can enhance the overall performance of the Moroccan sports sector. |
| Abstract: | Cette étude explore la dynamique des ancres de carrière façonnées par des déterminants organisationnels, individuels et sociétaux en relation avec l'accès des femmes aux postes de direction dans les fédérations sportives marocaines. Dans un contexte historiquement dominé par les hommes, la compréhension de ces dynamiques est essentielle pour promouvoir une progression de carrière plus équitable et durable. Entre janvier et juin 2024, des entretiens semi-structurés ont été menés auprès de 28 femmes dirigeantes de 12 fédérations, en utilisant une approche interprétative qualitative et une analyse thématique à l'aide de NVivo 14. Les résultats mettent en évidence deux ancres spécifiques au contexte socioculturel marocain (le soutien familial et social et les croyances religieuses et culturelles), qui révèlent l'impact des pressions culturelles et des responsabilités familiales qui peuvent entraver l'avancement des femmes. De plus, six autres ancres de carrière prévalent dans le sport : la sécurité émotionnelle et professionnelle, les compétences managériales, le défi résilient, les compétences techniques, l'engagement transformateur et la vision globale. L'interaction des facteurs individuels, organisationnels et sociétaux, ainsi que ces ancres de carrière, montre que les femmes plus âgées cherchent à avoir un impact durable, tandis que les femmes plus jeunes privilégient les défis. Le soutien familial et culturel permet de concilier vie personnelle et ambitions, tandis que le développement des compétences managériales et un environnement de travail favorable s'avèrent cruciaux. De plus, le contexte économique, les croyances religieuses, les normes culturelles et les cadres juridiques internationaux influencent fortement les choix de carrière des femmes, les incitant à rechercher la stabilité, l'alignement éthique et les opportunités mondiales. Cette étude fournit aux décideurs une compréhension claire des facteurs qui façonnent les trajectoires de carrière des femmes et suggère des actions concrètes (favoriser une gouvernance inclusive, faire progresser l'égalité des sexes et changer les mentalités) qui peuvent améliorer la performance globale du secteur sportif marocain. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Leadership, Career anchors, Sports federations, Morocco, Cultural barriers, Inclusive governance, Professional equity |
| Date: | 2025–02–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04962731 |
| By: | Nohayla Badrane (ENCGS - Ecole Nationale de Commerce et de Gestion de SETTAT); Zineb Bamousse (Ecole nationale de commerce et de gestion settat) |
| Abstract: | In a rapidly evolving landscape marked by continuous change and complex challenges, effective cash management stands as a cornerstone for ensuring business sustainability and driving performance. To address these pressing demands, cash managersare increasingly turning to innovative financing solutions such as venture capital, green finance, crowdfunding, advanced services from Pan-African banks, and blockchain technology. These cutting-edge tools are pivotal in bolstering resilience against market volatility, ecological transitions, and the accelerating pace of technological change. The present article aims to examine how such innovative financial approaches can serve as strategic drivers, enabling businesses to transform challenges into opportunities. The analysis underscores that rethinking cash management through innovation is a critical pathway toboost the performance of Moroccan companies. Therefore, embracing these forward-thinking strategies unlocks new avenues for development empowering them to adapt with agility amidst the uncertainties of a shifting environment. |
| Abstract: | Sous l'emprise d'un paradigme économique traversé par des mutations constantes et des défis contemporains complexes, la gestion de la trésorerie s'impose la pierre angulaire qui conditionne la pérennité et influe sur la performance des entreprises. Face à ces enjeux, les trésoriers sont appelés à se servir des modes de financement innovants tels que le capital-risque, la finance verte, le Crowdfunding, les solutions avant-gardistes des banques panafricaines, ainsi que les services offerts par la blockchain. Ces outils novateurs agissent comme des catalyseurs majeurs de la résilience face à un paysage imprégné de la volatilité des marchés, des transitions écologiques et des exigences croissantes d'adaptation technologique. A ce propos, le présent article a pour ambition d'investiguer la manière dont ces modes de financements innovants peuvent servir de leviers stratégiques pour transformer ces défis en opportunités. Les résultats mettent en évidence que l'innovation au coeur de la gestion de la trésorerie constitue un vecteur incontestable pour soutenir la compétitivité et booster la performance des entreprises marocaines, Elle ouvre ainsi de nouvelles perspectives de développement en leur permettant de naviguer avec agilité à travers les turbulences d'un environnement en pleine mutation. |
| Keywords: | Innovative cash management, Financial performance, Sustainability, Innovative financing instruments, Resilience, Gestion de trésorerie innovante, Performance financière, Pérennité, Instruments de financement innovants, résilience |
| Date: | 2025–02–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04956625 |
| By: | Ferhat, Samia; Joubert, Clement Jean Edouard |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the early career dynamics of employment and formality using data from the Arab Republic of Egypt. With 14 rounds of Egypt’s labor force surveys several measures of informality and underemployment are constructed to examine how the labor market conditions faced by young men when they exit school shape their future employment trajectories. Employment outcomes at different levels of potential experience are linked to cross-cohort, cross-regional and cross-schooling level variation in labor market conditions at graduation to achieve identification. The results show that cohorts of Egyptian men who enter a labor market in which employment rates are high (low) are only better (worse) off for a few years. These fast mean reversals stand in contrast to the typical finding from rich countries that scarring effects persist through the first decade of a worker’s career. |
| Date: | 2023–06–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10499 |
| By: | Decerf, Benoit Marie A; Genoni, Maria Eugenia; Helmy, Imane Abdelfattah Ahmed Refaat; Sanz, Guillermo Federico |
| Abstract: | Many developing countries’ official poverty methodologies rely on nonstandard poverty lines, which complicate poverty comparisons across space or time. The paper considers the case of the Arab Republic of Egypt, whose official poverty lines have two important nonstandard features. First, the line is neither absolute nor relative, but rather hybrid or “weakly relative.” Second, the poverty line’s implicit equivalence scales are not fixed, but are rather endogenous. This paper provides a conceptual and quantitative understanding of these two nonstandard features. The results reveal that the equivalence scale implicit in the official methodology is quantitatively very similar to the (simpler) per capita equivalence scale. Switching to a per capita equivalence scale would help address an implicit gender bias that the paper identifies in Egypt’s official poverty lines. The analysis shows that the official distribution of poverty across regions is very similar to that associated with a purely absolute line. In addition, the change in official poverty rates over the period analyzed (2015 to 2017/18) lies halfway between the larger increase captured by a purely absolute line (10 percentage points) and that captured by a purely relative measure (1 percentage point). However, the results show that these more standard poverty lines do not systematically perform better than the official methodology with respect to the identification of disadvantaged households. |
| Date: | 2023–05–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10437 |
| By: | Lamia Saidane (Laboratoire de Recherche en Economie et Finance Islamiques - Institut Supérieur de Théologie-ISTH) |
| Keywords: | Blue economy, Islamic Blue Financing, climate change, sustainable development, Economie bleue, Financement Islamique bleue, changements climatiques, développement durable |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04949157 |
| By: | Krafft, Caroline Gould; Nikaein Towfighian, Samira; Raikes, Abbie; Mojgani, Rebecca Sayre |
| Abstract: | Quality assurance systems have been implemented or are under development in a number of low- and middle-income countries in an effort to observe the quality of education and deploy targeted measures to improve quality. This paper shares lessons learned on the potential ability of quality assurance systems to observe quality and inform action, drawing on data from a pre-primary quality assurance system in the Arab Republic of Egypt. A nationally representative study of kindergarten classrooms was conducted, using a detailed diagnostic research tool administered by independent enumerators from a data collection firm. A subsample of these kindergarten classrooms was randomly assigned to also be observed through a short quality assurance system tool, half of them by independent enumerators, and the other half by the existing cadre of government kindergarten supervisors. The quality assurance system tool was developed for scale and financial sustainability; thus, it could be administered in roughly one-third of the time of the diagnostic tool, at one-third of the cost. Overall, the results illustrate that at the national level, the quality assurance system tool can identify important areas for improvement, and thus inform broad policy actions. Further, the results are consistent whether an independent data collection firm or a government kindergarten supervisor acted as enumerator, suggesting that quality assurance system data collection efforts can be embedded within ministries of education and implemented in a regular and sustainable manner. At the school and teacher level, however, there were several areas where the quality assurance system data were inconsistent with the diagnostic data. This underscores how quality assurance systems are best used as a formative system, a starting point for quality enhancement, and not as a summative system that directly targets, punishes, or rewards specific schools. |
| Date: | 2023–06–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10482 |
| By: | Bezerra De Goes, Carlos Andre; Lopez-Acevedo, Gladys C.; Robertson, Raymond |
| Abstract: | Gender segmentation in labor markets shapes the local effects of international trade. This paper develops a theory that embeds trade in gender-segmented labor markets and shows that in this framework, foreign demand shocks may increase or decrease the female-to-male employment ratio. If a foreign demand shock from a relevant market happens in a female-intensive (male-intensive) sector, the model predicts that the female-to-male employment ratio should increase (decrease). The paper then uses plausibly exogenous variation in the exposure of Tunisian local labor markets to foreign demand shocks and shows that the empirical results are consistent with the theoretical prediction. In Tunisia, a country with a high degree of gender segmentation in the labor markets, foreign demand shocks have been relatively larger in male-intensive sectors. This induced a decrease in the female-to-male employment ratio, with households likely substituting female for male labor supply. |
| Date: | 2023–07–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10518 |
| By: | Finn, Arden Jeremy; Anderson, Jessica Marie; Aghajanian, Alia Jane |
| Abstract: | Internet surveys may never replace in-person surveys as a gold standard, but they remain important tools for rapid, remote, and low-cost data collection. The West Bank and Gaza Poverty and Equity team had a unique opportunity to compare a Facebook survey with an in-person survey covering conflict exposure and potentially associated socioeconomic and mental health outcomes over a similar time period. It is reasonable to expect that the estimates from internet surveys and in-person surveys would differ. In this case, the Facebook survey estimates more severe outcomes (e.g., higher exposure to conflict and worse mental health) than its in-person counterpart for most topics and populations. Multiple mechanisms may have contributed to this difference in estimates, including overrepresentation in the Facebook sample of respondents who were interested in the survey topics, reduced sensitivity bias in the context of a self-administered online questionnaire, and reporting more severe outcomes than personally experienced to encourage resource flows to perceived needs. Estimated outcomes tend to be more similar for people in Gaza, possibly because of greater homogeneity in socioeconomic experiences and exposure to violent conflict and broader interest in a survey on the effects of the May 2021 violence. The main results are robust to different ways of controlling for observable characteristics; neither alternative weights nor sample restrictions erase the systematic differences between the surveys. |
| Date: | 2023–06–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10494 |
| By: | Taher Labadi (IFPO - Institut Français du Proche-Orient - MEAE - Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Keywords: | Palestine, Gaza, Blocus, Guerre |
| Date: | 2023–11–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04487080 |
| By: | Ajwad, Mohamed Ihsan; Bilo, Simon; Nguyen, Ha; AlAnsari, Ebtesam; AlHumaidan, Lama; Alrashidi, Faleh M F E |
| Abstract: | Kuwaiti women working in Kuwait’s civil service earn, on average, 18 percent less than Kuwaiti men. Using a unique data set of all Kuwaiti nationals working in Kuwait’s civil service, this paper analyzes the relationship between wages, gender, and the relative dominance of women in occupations and workplaces. The main finding is that an important portion of the association between gender and wages is explained not by human capital but by occupational and workplace segregation of men and women. Occupations with a higher ratio of women to men tend to have lower wages for both genders when compared to workers in occupations with a lower ratio of women to men. This finding is especially true for women. Workplaces with a higher female-to-male ratio exhibit lower male wages but slightly higher female wages than workplaces with lower female-to-male workplace ratios. The paper calls this latter novel finding the female-worker representation effect. |
| Date: | 2023–06–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10509 |