Conference Paper
Maternal Employment and Children’s Development Outcomes: Understanding the Influence of Employment Types
No.
ERF30_71
Publisher
ERF
Date
March, 2024
High inequality of opportunities for early childhood development is a major social challenge in the Arab region. This study evaluates the role of mothers’ employment status on children’s developmental outcomes, as measured by a large set of indicators across all sixteen low- and middle-income Arab countries and years 2002–2015. First, we confirm that Arab children in general receive inadequate access to qualified prenatal and delivery care, many fail to be vaccinated or receive an inadequate supply of iodine. Disproportionately many children thus become stunted and underweight, or die before their first birthday. Significant deficiencies exist also in children’s opportunities for cognitive development: enrolment in nurseries and pre-school programs, cognitive stimulation at home. Meanwhile, violent disciplining and exploitation of children for housework are widespread. Second, our health-survey data confirm that young Arab mothers tend to hold lower-level, precarious work even relative to the notoriously poor out-of survey benchmarks for all women. Mothers’ employment affects children’s outcomes systematically and significantly, with more-formal positions in the labor market being responsible for generally better nutritional outcomes for children. This is the case for children’s risk of stunting and wasting, and across most occupation types also for being underweight. This differs substantially across countries and years, and across children’s specific circumstances, suggesting that children’s vulnerabilities are interrelated and exacerbate each other.
Research Fellows
Shireen AlAzzawi
Teaching Professor, Economics Department, Leavey School of...
Authors
Vladimir Hlasny
Economic Affairs Officer, UN Economic and Social...