Fertility, Health and Female Labour Force Participation in Urban Cameroon

Abstract

Many studies report empirical relationship either between fertility and labour supply or, between health and labour market outcomes. In this paper, an extension of these ideas involves explicitly considering how fertility and health affect each other, and how they interrelate with labour force participation. A unifying framework is provided and a simultaneous three equations model developed to capture the interdependence between these variables as well as their respective determinants. The model is estimated using a cross-section data set obtained from a survey of the urban Cameroon population. The results indicate that: (i) fertility and health status are significantly interrelated, thus separate estimations of fertility (or health status) and participation will produce misleading results; (ii) working in either sector of the labour market significantly reduces fertility but, unlike many previous studies, fertility has a positive impact on the probability of labour force participation; (iii) there is strong evidence that health and disability status is a significant determinant of employment, but the reverse depend on the labour market sector and on the health indicator used.

A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Fertility on Women’s Employment in Urban and Rural Areas of Cameroon

“…If a subject's fertility were to increase by one, the log-odds for being employed relative to not being employed would be expected to increase by 0.96 units holding other variables constant. This implies that contrary to the expectations that having children might disturb women from actively being involved in the labour market, this finding confirms that of Tsafack and Zamo-Akono (2010) who concluded that fertility has a positive impact on the probability of women's labour force participation. This can be justified by the fact that having many children have proven to place additional financial burden on the woman in particular and their family as a whole thus forcing the woman to work in order to gain extra income to provide for these children.…”

Transitions in Fertility for Brazilian Women: An Analysis of Impact Factors

“…That is, as people live longer, they invest more in human capital, which, in turn, results in an increase in female labor participation and a reduction in the pay gap between genders. [5] use fertility, health and labor supply data to estimate the relationship between labor participation and fertility in Cameroon. Their results suggest a strong relationship between fertility and health conditions, and they not that engagement in the labor market decreases fertility rates, whereas having children increases the chances of female labor participation.…”

“…[3] , [4] analyze the trend in female labor supply using PNAD data for the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. By modeling fertility, health and labor participation in Cameroon, [5] concluded that although labor participation reduces fertility rates, having a child increases a woman’s propensity to work. [6] use evidence from different countries throughout the world to motivate a theoretical model that suggests that the increase in labor participation was motivated by the decline in wage discrimination against women and that the reduction in child mortality reduced fertility.…”

Functioning and disability in recent research from Cameroon: a narrative synthesis

“…Physical disabilities: Of five studies addressing the impacts of physical disabilities, Bremer et al [ 38 ], Fernande and Paul-Iva [ 39 ] and Kiani [ 40 ] addressed participation restrictions for people living with mobility impairments (PLWMI). Kiani [ 40 ], Nanfosso and Zamo-Akono [ 41 ] and Zamo-Akono [ 42 ] addressed employment restrictions. All five studies found that having a physical disability made it difficult to participate in employment [ 38 – 42 ].…”