Timing of Marriage and Women's Economic Empowerment in Egypt

描述(申请人提供)：长期以来，埃及妇女的经济赋权水平较低。具体地说，他们只占劳动力的不到三分之一。年轻女性可能会进入劳动力大军，以获得“美满婚姻”所需的资源，但一旦结婚，就会退出劳动力大军。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年来具有全国代表性的小组数据，我们将评估妇女的初婚年龄对其经济赋权的影响，如她婚后从事市场工作的倾向以及她在家庭经济决策中的影响。数据本分析的样本包括1998年约2340名年龄在15-35岁的妇女，她们在埃及劳动力市场小组调查中接受了采访，并在1998年从未结婚。ELMPS是一项为期14年的全国性家庭小组研究，收集了受访者的初婚年龄、生育史、劳动力参与度、家庭自给自足劳动的时间分配、对家庭经济决策的影响以及结婚资产等详细信息。我们还将使用ELMPS的数据和埃及20年来(1988-2008年)重复的跨国人口和健康调查来构建综合指标，以反映样本妇女结婚之前当地婚姻市场的各个方面。方法以未婚男性失业率、结婚时间、结婚资产、结婚成本为工具变量，估计女性初婚年龄对女性婚后从事市场工作的水平和倾向的影响及其对家庭经济决策的影响。意义：目前关于初婚年龄和妇女经济赋权之间关系的证据受到以下因素的限制：对横截面数据的依赖，以及妇女在结婚前后参与劳动力及其时机、婚姻带来的资产以及对家庭经济决策的影响等方面的衡量标准不佳。我们的研究将通过使用涵盖14年的丰富的面板数据集来克服这些差距，并为所有感兴趣的结构提供详细的衡量标准。我们的研究结果将对妇女推迟结婚可在多大程度上加强其经济赋权的各个方面提供更严格和系统的评估。

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.