Strengthening Economic Rights and Women’s Occupational Choice: The Impact of Reforming Ethiopia’s Family Law

Type Journal Article - World Bank Mimeo
Title Strengthening Economic Rights and Women’s Occupational Choice: The Impact of Reforming Ethiopia’s Family Law
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2010
URL http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/conferences/2011-EdiA/papers/790-Hallward-Driemeier.pdf
Abstract
This paper evaluates the impact of changing property rights on the types of economic opportunities that are pursued. Ethiopia changed its family law in 2000, raising the minimum age of marriage for women, removing the ability of the husband to deny permission for the wife to work outside the home and requiring both spouses? consent in the administration of marital property. While this reform now applies across the country, it was initially rolled out in the two chartered cities and 3 of Ethiopia?s 9 regions. Using two nationally representative household surveys, one in 2000 just prior to the reform, and one five years later, allows for a difference-in-difference estimation of the impact of the reform. We find evidence that women?s economic opportunities expanded relatively more where the reform had been enacted, controlling for time and location effects. Women were relatively more likely to work in occupations that require work outside the home, in paid and full-time jobs, and in higher-paid occupations

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