Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gender Disparity In Human Capital: Going Beyond Schooling, Mohammad Amin, Khrystyna Kushnir L.

Mohammad Amin

The paper contributes to the literature on gender-based disparity in human capital by extending existing results on educational attainment to the number of years of experience that top female and male managers have. For a sample of 71 developing countries, results show that the number of years of experience for female managers is significantly lower, equaling 83-86 percent that of their male counterparts. This gender-based difference is particularly large among young firms, but small an insignificant among older firms.

Gender Inequality And Growth: The Case Of Rich Vs. Poor Countries, Mohammad Amin, Veselin Kuntchev

Mohammad Amin

Using cross-section data for over 120 countries, we explore the relationship between gender inequality and economic growth. We contribute to the existing literature in two important ways. First, we use a broad measure of gender inequality that goes well beyond gender inequality in education, the focus of most existing studies. Second, we allow for heterogeneity in the growth and gender inequality relationship across low and high-income countries. Our results confirm that greater gender inequality is associated with lower growth. However, this negative relationship holds among the low-income countries but not among high-income countries. Our findings have important implications for the …

The Female-Firm Under-Performance Hypothesis And Gender Disparity In The Laws, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Using firm-level data on developing countries, the present paper explores and extends the well-known female-firm under-performance hypothesis. Using firm-size as the measure of performance, we contribute to the literature in three important ways. First, in contrast to existing studies that focus on the gender of the owner(s), we focus on the gender of the top manager of the firm. Hence, a new dimension of female vs. male-firms is suggested. Second, we argue that the gender-based difference in firm-size in favor of men need not be uniform across countries. Specifically, we argue that it is likely to be larger in countries …

Flexible Work Schedule, Child Care And Female Employment In Developing Countries: Evidence Using Firm-Level Data, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Using newly available data on whether a country gives additional legal rights or not for flexible or part-time work schedule to employees with minor children, we analyze the impact of such provision in the law on female employment. For a representative sample of manufacturing firms in 57 developing countries, we find that the stated provision in the law has a large positive effect on the employment of females. Specifically, on the conservative side, the provision in the law increases the proportion of females in the workforce by 7.7 percentage points, a large effect given that on average females constitute 32 …

Gender Disparity In Laws And Female Employment, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

In a large sample of firms in 66 developing countries, it is shown that gender specific disparity in the laws favoring males over females tends to lower the employment of females relative to males at the firm level. However, this relationship between gender disparity in laws and employment is driven by small and medium firms, and it does not hold for the sample of large firms. However, the relationship holds equally in rich vs. poor countries, small vs. large cities within countries and among firms with and without female owners. We also confirm a sharp negative effect of gender disparity …

Efficiency, Firm-Size And Gender: The Case Of Informal Firms In Latin America, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

The paper extends the female under-performance hypothesis to informal or unregistered firms in two developing countries, Argentina and Peru. Specifically, results show that for a sample of informal firms, average productivity of labor and firm-size measured by monthly sales and employment are smaller for female-owned compared with male-owned firms.

Gender And Informality In Latin America (Short Note), Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Recently collected data on informal or unregistered firms in Argentina and Peru show significant differences between male and female-owned firms in certain firm characteristics and performance measures. Compared with male-owned firms, female-owned firms are smaller in size as measured by total monthly sales and also less efficient as measured by the average productivity of labor. Female-owned firms are less likely to use equipments such as machines and vehicles, although this is not the reason for their lower efficiency. Some of the commonly held views including lower education among women entrepreneurs, fewer numbers of owners among firms that have a female …

Gender And Informality (A Short Note), Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

For a sample of informal firms in Burkina Faso, Cameroons, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar and Mauritius, this note compares male and female owned businesses. The results provide mixed evidence on a number of hypotheses discussed in the literature for firms in the formal sector. First, the female under-performance hypothesis is confirmed, but only for firm-size. For firm-efficiency measured by the average productivity of labor, we find little difference across male and female owned businesses. Second, consistent with the view that women may face glass-ceiling in getting managerial positions, we find that women managers in our sample have less experience …

Gender And Firm-Size: Evidence From Africa, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

A number of studies show that relative to male owned businesses, female owned businesses are smaller in size. However, these studies are restricted to the formal or the organized sector. Also, with some exceptions, they focus on the developed countries. This paper explores the gender and firm-size relationship for a sample of informal or unregistered firms in six developing countries in Africa including Burkina Faso, Cameroons, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar and Mauritius. We find strong evidence that female owned businesses are smaller than male owned businesses.

[Data and Stata do files included]

Home-Based Informal Businesses And The Gender Dimension, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Anecdotal evidence suggests that working from home makes it easier to balance work and family life. This is particularly attractive to women, who are viewed as primary caregivers in the family in most developing countries. However, there is some concern in the literature that family responsibility may detract from doing business, leading to fewer hours of operation and lower efficiency for home-based businesses run by women. The present paper tests these hypotheses using data on informal or unregistered firms in five African countries. We find strong evidence that female entrepreneurs have a greater proclivity compared with male entrepreneurs to work …