HAVE ECONOMIC REFORMS PAID-OFF? GENDER OCCUPATIONAL INEQUALITY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM IN EGYPT

This study considers the impact of over a decade of structural adjustment policies in Egypt on gender wage and occupational inequality. Using newly released Labor Force Sample Surveys (LFSS) for the years 2000-2004, a slight drop in public sector employment and a comparable increase in private sector employment for women is observed. Regardless of sector of employment, women still earn less than men, with private sector workers being the worst. Wage discrimination in the private sector in favor of men is evident at three groups of occupations: white collars, blue collars and professionals. Results also indicate occupational segregation and crowding of women in specific job types is a more serious issue in pay differences for blue collars in recent years, while pure discrimination is dictating wage differentials for professionals and white collars. Elements of productivity in terms of human capital endowments are not directly responsible for wage inequality in the private sector. Despite having less education, men receive higher wages for their comparative advantage in years of experience. Contrary to years of education, experience, as a factor endowment and a proxy for productivity, is highly valued and compensated for in favor of men

Wage Inequality by Education and Gender in MENA: Contrasting the Egyptian and Moroccan Experiences in the 1990s

The 1990s has been a decade of considerable socioeconomic change in the MENA region characterized by adoption of economic liberalization policies and a declining role of the state as an employer in the labor market. This paper explores some of the equity implications of this transition by examining changes in the distribution of returns to education and gender wage premia in the Egypt and Morocco market using joint models of educational choice and wage determination. Selectivity corrected returns to different levels of education indicate that a reduction in the role of the public sector lead to lower returns in the private sector and falling returns over time. Only at the university level, are returns higher in the private sector in Egypt indicating that employers place relatively little value on basic and secondary education. In Morocco there is some evidence of higher returns in the private sector by the end of the 1990, which might be indicative of better matching of educational credentials and productivity differences. Oaxaca-Blinder wages-differentials decompositions of sector and gender wage gap for Egypt and Morocco indicate that the unexplained component in public wage premia and gender gaps have declined in Egypt, but substantially increased in Morocco over the 1990s. Overall, economic liberalization and public sector retrenchment which were much more comprehensive in Morocco appear to have had a more dislocating effect also on labor market wage outcomes. The paper ends with some policy implications and suggests future directions of research in the areas of educational and public sector reform and policies to improve access of women to the private sectors in MENA

The impact of trade liberalization on manufacturing employment and wages in Egypt 1990-2007

This paper explores the impact of trade liberalization on manufacturing employment and wages over a period 1993-2006, a period coinciding with significant reduction in trade barriers and rising unemployment. Despite increasing import penetration, the paper shows that employment has increased across all manufacturing industries. Data from Egypt’s labor market survey confirm that layoffs as a result of trade liberalization is not among the factors responsible for unemployment. On the other hand, regression analysis shows that the reduction in tariffs and increasing export orientation has been associated with an increase in wages in manufacturing industries though the role of export orientation in influencing poor wages has not been significant. Meanwhile, quantile regressions reveal that the impact of both the reduction in tariffs and increase in export orientation has not been uniform across the different quantiles of the wage distribution. The paper further points out to the possibility that further reduction of trade barriers might lead to high adjustment costs in terms of long spells of unemployment or lower pay on grounds of old age and low educational attainment of Egypt’s work force. Adjustment policies in the form of direct job search assistance as country experience illustrates is considered to be the most appropriate form of adjustment assistance.Trade liberalization; employment; wages; adjustment costs; adjustment assistance

Wage Inequality, Returns to Education and Gender Premia in MENA

Since the early 1990s, most countries in the MENA region started a new development model that aims to rely mostly on a growing export oriented, and privately held economy to achieve higher rates of growth. This chapter explores some of the equity implications of this transition by examining changes in the distribution of returns to education and gender wage premia in the Egyptian and Moroccan labor market in the 1990s. This is accomplished by estimating joint models of educational choice and wage determination for both countries yielding selectivity corrected returns to different levels of education, from which a crude estimate of the private rate of return is calculated

The impact of fiscal policy shocks in the United Kingdom: an empirical investigation

MPhilThis paper empirically examines the impact of shocks to government spending and government revenues on main macroeconomic variables in the UK. We apply the methodology of Mountford and Uhlig (2009) to analyze the effectiveness of fiscal policy in the UK and compare our results with the literature on fiscal policy in the US. Following a government spending shock in the UK, there is an immediate increase in output, private investment and real wages. Regarding the government revenue shock, it is contradictory in the US. In the UK, however, private investment and GDP react positively to this shock

Trade liberalization, inter-industry wage differentials and job quality in Egyptian manufacturing

This working paper investigates the impact of trade openness on wage and job quality outcomes in the Egyptian manufacturing sector over a period of rapid trade liberalization. Results indicate that institutional factors of job quality (social security, medical insurance, a contract, paid casual leave, paid sick leave, and membership in a trade union) have the strongest correlation with the trade variables and the industry-specific characteristics used in the analysis. Tariff reduction per se, does not seem to have had a significant impact on either wages or job quality. On the other hand, increased export orientation exerts a strong positive impact on wages but a significant negative impact on all job quality indices in many specifications. Finally, industries with the highest import penetration levels have the lowest job quality, but those that had the largest increase in import penetration also saw large improvements in job quality. The results underscore the clear distinction between wage and job quality outcomes in the Egyptian labor market and the importance of separating the two when examining the effect of trade policy on labor

Improving the effectiveness of job fairs for young jobseekers in Egypt

This detailed report covers causes and conditions of the mismatch between employers and those seeking employment in Egypt. It then argues for the effectiveness of job fairs to bridge the recruitment gap. Lack of information is as big a constraint as monetary constraints/transportation costs in job fair attendance. A travel voucher treatment was cross-randomized with information supply and shows that people who received both the information and the voucher increased their job fair attendance by 9.8 percentage points (a 280% increase relative to control). The report also includes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market

Hepatoprotective Effect of Eplerenone, A Selective Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist, Against Thioacetamide Induced Liver Injury in Rats

Abstract A growing body of evidence suggests the contribution of aldosterone in induction of oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, inflammation and fibrosis in the vasculature, heart and kidney leading to progressive target organ damage. However, its role in liver injury is not clearly elucidated. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of eplerenone, a selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, on liver injury in rat and the possible underlying mechanisms. Liver injury was induced by intraperitoneal injection of thioacetamide (200 mg/kg body weight, 3 times per week for 4 weeks). Thioacetamide injection resulted in significant increase in serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, interleukin 6, Tumor necrosis factor alpha and hepatic malondialdehyde concomitant with significant decline in the indices of antioxidant capacity, hepatic reduced glutathione and superoxide dismutase. Treatment with eplerenone (4 mg/kg/day for 4 weeks) in thioacetamide injected rats significantly restored these values to nearly the control values. The present study suggests implication of aldosterone in the pathophysiology of liver injury as treatment with eplerenone has hepatoprotective effect against liver injury induced by thioacetamide via reducing liver enzymes, inflammatory markers and oxidative stress