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Does microcredit reduce the gender gap in employment? Evidence from Egypt

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  • Mohamed Arouri
  • Nguyen Viet Cuong

Abstract

In Egypt, there is a remarkable gap between men's and women's participation in the labour market. In this study, we examine the impact of microcredit on the labour supply of men and women and subsequently investigate whether microcredit can reduce the employment gap between men and women in Egypt. We find a negative effect of microcredit on men's employment, but a positive effect on the employment of women. Borrowing from a microcredit source increases the probability of women working by 8.5 percentage points and mainly affects self‐employed work. We also find a positive effect of microcredit on work in small businesses. This finding suggests that women can use microcredit to open small shops or household businesses. Finally, using decomposition analysis, we find that microcredit reduces the overall employment gap between men and women by 0.743%.

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  • Mohamed Arouri & Nguyen Viet Cuong, 2020. "Does microcredit reduce the gender gap in employment? Evidence from Egypt," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(2), pages 111-124, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:afrdev:v:32:y:2020:i:2:p:111-124
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-8268.12420
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    Cited by:

    1. Florence D. Mndolwa & Abdul Latif Alhassan, 2020. "Gender disparities in financial inclusion: Insights from Tanzania," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(4), pages 578-590, December.
    2. BILAN Yuriy & OMRAN Emad Attia Mohamed, 2022. "Female Labour Force Participation and the Economic Development in Egypt," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    3. Hidaya Othmani, 2021. "Does board gender diversity matter in the banking sector? Evidence from Tunisia," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(1), pages 14-24, March.
    4. BILAN Yuriy & OMRAN Emad Attia Mohamed & BILAN Yuriy & OMRAN Emad Attia Mohamed, 2012. "Female Labour Force Participation and the Economic Development in Egypt," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    5. Djihad Tria & Mukaramah Harun & Mahmudul Alam, 2022. "Microcredit as a strategy for employment creation: A systematic review of literature," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 2060552-206, December.

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