Jean-Louis Bago et Sylvain Dessy publieront dans le Economic Development and Cultural Change

7 juillet 2021

Jean-Louis Bago, diplômé au doctorat en économique et Sylvain Dessy, professeur au Département publieront un article intitulé « Motherhood and Women’s Self-Employment : Theory and Evidence from Nigeria » dans le journal Economic Development and Cultural Change.  

Ci-dessous un résumé du papier.

Abstract: The literature holds that having young children pushes women into self-employment to reconcile motherhood demands with their professional ambitions. However, knowledge gaps remain on how this effect differs by social context. Using nationally representative data from Nigeria, this paper demonstrates that motherhood has no statistically significant impact on women's self-employment probabilities in a context where self-employment is predominantly informal, and marriage creates extended family networks. Instead, after accounting for selection bias and the endogeneity of fertility and education decisions jointly, we find that lack of education drives up women's self-employment probabilities in such a context. These findings are robust to alternative specifications.