IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/inrvec/v72y2025i1d10.1007_s12232-025-00485-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transforming households: exploring the impact of health on the economic prosperity of female home-based workers

Author

Listed:
  • Aribah Aslam

    (Beaconhouse National University)

  • Ghulam Ghouse

    (Beaconhouse National University)

Abstract

This study delves into the challenges faced by female home-based workers in the context of gender disparity, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan. Despite the growing significance of low-earning female labor forces in the country’s economy, insufficient attention has been given to addressing their health issues, which can have profound implications for their household economics and overall well-being. Through a comparative case study of upper and lower Punjab in Pakistan, this research aims to examine the role of improved health status in preventing female home-based workers from falling into poverty. The analysis utilizes survey data from BOS and empirically investigates the influence of health, along with other contributing factors such as experience, education, and market knowledge, on the earnings of female home-based workers. The findings underscore the vital role of these factors, including health, in shaping the economic outcomes of female home-based workers within their households. The discussion section explores the implications of these empirical findings, shedding light on potential pathways connecting health, earnings, education, experience, and market knowledge. By providing policymakers with valuable insights, this study offers opportunities to improve the economic well-being of female home-based workers and their households in Pakistan.

Suggested Citation

  • Aribah Aslam & Ghulam Ghouse, 2025. "Transforming households: exploring the impact of health on the economic prosperity of female home-based workers," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 72(1), pages 1-21, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:72:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s12232-025-00485-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s12232-025-00485-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12232-025-00485-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12232-025-00485-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James J. Heckman & Lance J. Lochner & Petra E. Todd, 2003. "Fifty Years of Mincer Earnings Regressions," NBER Working Papers 9732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Halla, Martin & Zweimüller, Martina, 2013. "The effect of health on earnings: Quasi-experimental evidence from commuting accidents," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 23-38.
    3. Guillermo E. Perry & Omar S. Arias & J. Humberto López & William F. Maloney & Luis Servén, 2006. "Poverty Reduction and Growth : Virtuous and Vicious Circles," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6997, April.
    4. Murphy, Kevin M & Welch, Finis, 1990. "Empirical Age-Earnings Profiles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(2), pages 202-229, April.
    5. James L. Medoff & Katharine G. Abraham, 1980. "Experience, Performance, and Earnings," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 95(4), pages 703-736.
    6. repec:idb:brikps:42218 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Richard Easterlin, 2005. "Feeding the Illusion of Growth and Happiness: A Reply to Hagerty and Veenhoven," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 74(3), pages 429-443, December.
    8. Todd M. Gabe, 2009. "Knowledge And Earnings," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 439-457, August.
    9. Graham Tipple, 2006. "Employment and work conditions in home-based enterprises in four developing countries: do they constitute ‘decent work’?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(1), pages 167-179, March.
    10. Felicia Marie Knaul & Edmundo Murrugarra & Carlos Hernández Alvarez & Rafael Cortez & William D. Savedoff & Jaime Espinosa Ferrando & Rocío Ribero Medina & Martín Valdivia & T. Paul Schultz & Jairo Nú, 2000. "Wealth from Health: Linking Social Investments to Earnings in Latin America," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 42218 edited by William D. Savedoff & T. Paul Schultz, February.
    11. Creedy, J & Hart, P E, 1979. "Age and the Distribution of Earnings," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 89(354), pages 280-293, June.
    12. Rupietta, Christian & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2019. "Combining knowledge stock and knowledge flow to generate superior incremental innovation performance — Evidence from Swiss manufacturing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 209-222.
    13. Carr, Marilyn. & Chen, Martha Alter., 2002. "Globalization and the informal economy : how global trade and investment impact on the working poor," ILO Working Papers 993541723402676, International Labour Organization.
    14. Hill, M Anne, 1983. "Female Labor Force Participation in Developing and Developed Countries-Consideration of the Informal Sector," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(3), pages 459-468, August.
    15. Chengjuan Xia & Md. Qamruzzaman & Anass Hamadelneel Adow, 2022. "An Asymmetric Nexus: Remittance-Led Human Capital Development in the Top 10 Remittance-Receiving Countries: Are FDI and Gross Capital Formation Critical for a Road to Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-24, March.
    16. Brunello, Giorgio & Comi, Simona, 2004. "Education and earnings growth: evidence from 11 European countries," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 75-83, February.
    17. Knaul, Felicia Marie & Murrugarra, Edmundo & Hernández Alvarez, Carlos & Cortez, Rafael & Savedoff, William D. & Espinosa Ferrando, Jaime & Ribero Medina, Rocío & Valdivia, Martín & Schultz, T. Paul &, 2000. "Wealth from Health: Linking Social Investments to Earnings in Latin America," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 321.
    18. Klevmarken, N Anders & Quigley, John M, 1976. "Age, Experience, Earnings, and Investments in Human Capital," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(1), pages 47-72, February.
    19. Bosede Ngozi Adeleye & Ismail Bengana & Abdelaziz Boukhelkhal & Mohammad Musa Shafiq & Hauwah K. K. Abdulkareem, 2022. "Correction to: Does Human Capital Tilt the Population‑Economic Growth Dynamics? Evidence from Middle East and North African Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 885-886, July.
    20. repec:ilo:ilowps:354172 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Giuseppe Folloni & Giorgio Vittadini, 2010. "Human Capital Measurement: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 248-279, April.
    22. Ried, Walter, 1998. "Comparative dynamic analysis of the full Grossman model," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 383-425, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Polachek, Solomon W., 2008. "Earnings Over the Life Cycle: The Mincer Earnings Function and Its Applications," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 4(3), pages 165-272, April.
    2. Mengistae, Taye, 1999. "The relative effects of skill formation and job matching on wage growth in Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2104, The World Bank.
    3. Chernina, Eugenia & Gimpelson, Vladimir, 2023. "Do wages grow with experience? Deciphering the Russian puzzle," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 545-563.
    4. Alan Manning & Joanna Swaffield, 2008. "The gender gap in early-career wage growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 983-1024, July.
    5. James J. Heckman & Lance J. Lochner & Petra E. Todd, 2008. "Earnings Functions and Rates of Return," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-31.
    6. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    7. Andini, Corrado, 2009. "How Fast Do Wages Adjust to Human-Capital Productivity? Dynamic Panel-Data Evidence from Belgium, Denmark and Finland," IZA Discussion Papers 4583, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Barry R. Chiswick, 2006. "Jacob Mincer, Experience and the Distribution of Earnings," Springer Books, in: Shoshana Grossbard (ed.), Jacob Mincer A Pioneer of Modern Labor Economics, chapter 10, pages 109-126, Springer.
    9. Gauri Kartini Shastry & David N. Weil, 2003. "How Much of Cross-Country Income Variation is Explained By Health?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(2-3), pages 387-396, 04/05.
    10. Saule Kemelbayeva, 2020. "Returns to schooling in Kazakhstan: an update using a pseudo-panel approach," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(3), pages 437-487, September.
    11. Corrado Andini, 2013. "How well does a dynamic Mincer equation fit NLSY data? Evidence based on a simple wage-bargaining model," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 1519-1543, June.
    12. Luis Miguel Tovar Cuevas & Fabio Alberto Arias Arbel�ez, 2005. "Determinantes Del Estado De Salud De La Población Colombiana," Documentos de Trabajo 2323, Universidad del Valle, CIDSE.
    13. Eleftherios Giovanis & Martina Menon & Federico Perali, 2023. "Disability specific equivalence scales: a case–control approach applied to the cost of acquired brain injuries," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 643-672, December.
    14. Palme, Marten, 1995. "Earnings mobility and distribution: Comparing statistical models on Swedish data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 213-247, September.
    15. Chernina, Eugenia & Gimpelson, Vladimir, 2022. "Do Wages Grow with Experience? Deciphering the Russian Puzzle," IZA Discussion Papers 15068, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Castellucci, Fabrizio & Padula, Mario & Pica, Giovanni, 2011. "The age-productivity gradient: Evidence from a sample of F1 drivers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 464-473, August.
    17. Ana María Iregui-Bohórquez & Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo, 2015. "Estado de salud y participación laboral: Evidencia para Colombia," Borradores de Economia 851, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    18. Pietro Giorgio Lovaglio & Gianmarco Vacca & Stefano Verzillo, 2016. "Human capital estimation in higher education," Advances in Data Analysis and Classification, Springer;German Classification Society - Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (GfKl);Japanese Classification Society (JCS);Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG);International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS), vol. 10(4), pages 465-489, December.
    19. Titus J. Galama & Hans van Kippersluis, 2013. "Health Inequalities through the Lens of Health-Capital Theory: Issues, Solutions, and Future Directions," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Health and Inequality, volume 21, pages 263-284, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    20. Luis Miguel Tovar Cuevas, 2005. "Determinantes del estado de salud de la población colombiana," Economía, Gestión y Desarrollo 2326, Universidad Javeriana - Cali.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:72:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s12232-025-00485-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.