Timing of Marriage and Women's Economic Empowerment in Egypt

描述（由申请人提供）：长期以来，埃及妇女的经济赋权水平很低。具体来说，他们占劳动力的比例不到三分之一。年轻女性进入劳动力市场可能是为了获得“美满婚姻”所需的资源，但在结婚后就退出劳动力市场。在全国调查中，妇女还报告说她们在家庭经济决策中的影响力很低。目的：利用埃及14年的全国代表性面板数据，我们将评估女性初婚年龄对其经济赋权的影响，这体现在她婚后从事市场工作的倾向以及她对家庭经济决策的影响。本分析的样本包括1998年约2340名年龄在15-35岁之间的女性，她们在1998年接受了埃及劳动力市场小组调查（ELMPS）的采访，并且从未结婚。ELMPS是一项为期14年的全国家庭小组研究，收集了受访者初婚年龄、生育史、劳动力参与、家务劳动和维持生计劳动的时间分配、对家庭经济决策的影响以及婚姻带来的资产等详细信息。我们还将使用来自ELMPS的数据和跨越20年的埃及（1988 - 2008）的重复跨国人口和健康调查的数据来构建总体指标，以反映样本妇女结婚之前当地婚姻市场的各个方面。方法：我们将使用社区层面对未婚男性失业率、结婚时间、婚姻资产和婚姻成本的测量作为工具变量，来估计女性初婚年龄对她们婚后从事市场工作的倾向的水平和变化的影响，以及她们对家庭经济决策的影响。意义：目前关于初婚年龄与妇女经济赋权之间关系的证据有限，因为依赖于横截面数据，而且对妇女的劳动力参与情况及其在结婚前后的时间、为婚姻带来的资产以及对家庭经济决策的影响的衡量方法不完善。我们的研究将通过使用涵盖14年期间的丰富面板数据集以及对所有感兴趣的结构的详细测量来克服这些差距。我们的研究结果将提供一个更严格和系统的评估，在多大程度上推迟结婚的妇女可能会提高其经济赋权的各个方面。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Women in Egypt have a long history of low economic empowerment. Specifically, they occupy less than one third of the labor force. Young women may enter the labor force as a means to secure the resources needed for a "good marriage" but drop out of the labor force upon marriage. Women also report low levels of influence in family economic decisions in national surveys. OBJECTIVES Using nationally representative panel data spanning 14 years for Egypt, we will assess the effects of a woman's age at first marriage on her economic empowerment, as indicated by her propensity to be engaged in market work after marriage and her influence in familial economic decisions. DATA The sample for this analysis includes approximately 2,340 women ages 15-35 years in 1998, who were interviewed in the Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) and were never married in 1998. The ELMPS, a 14-year national household panel study, collects detailed information on respondents' ages at first marriage, fertility history, labor force participation, time allocation to domestic ad subsistence labor, influence in family economic decisions, and assets brought to marriage. We also will use data from the ELMPS and repeated cross-national Demographic and Health Surveys spanning 20 years for Egypt (1988 - 2008) to construct aggregate indicators to reflect aspects of the local marriage market that preceded the time at which sample women were married. METHODS We will use community level measures of the unemployment rate among never married men, timing of marriage, assets brought to marriage, and cost of marriage as instrumental variable to estimate the effect of women's age at first marriage on levels and change in their propensity to engage in market work after marriage and their influence in family economic decisions. SIGNIFICANCE: Current evidence on the relationship between age at first marriage and women's economic empowerment is limited by a reliance on cross-sectional data and poor measures of women's labor force participation and its timing around marriage, assets brought to marriage, and influence in family economic decisions. Our study will overcome these gaps by using a rich panel data set covering a 14-year period with detailed measures for all constructs of interest. The results of our study will provide a more rigorous and systematic assessment of the extent to which delaying marriage for women may enhance various dimensions of their economic empowerment.