Rural electrification and changes in employment structure in Cambodia

Abstract

We analyze the effect of electrification on changes in employment structure in Cambodia, which is still in early stage of electrification and structural change. In our analysis, we aim to examine the movement out of agriculture by looking into different categories of nonagricultural employment: nonagricultural self-employment, nonagricultural wage employment and nonagricultural unpaid workers. In order to mitigate the problem of non-random placement of electricity, we use the inverse probability of treatment weighting regression adjustment (IPWRA) method to conduct two different estimations, one with individual-level repeated cross-section data and another with district-level panel data, taking advantage of large and representative sample from the Cambodia General Population Census in 1998 and 2008. We found that the movement out of agriculture is dominated by non-farm self-employment activities. Access to electricity increases nonagricultural self-employment of both men and women by 10-12 percentage points. We also confirm a lack of external effects of electrification in rural Cambodia possibly due to low electrification rates among rural households.

The Link Between Occupations, Labor Force Participation of Married Women, and Household Technology in Indonesia

“…In this context, linked with Cubas Norando (2010) and Greenwood et al (2005), the results showed that the household purchases less technology if the women earned a lower salary than their created "value" at the house. As investigated by Dasso and Fernandez (2015), Tagliapietra et al (2020), and Chhay and Yamazaki (2021), this finding was also associated with the shift of occupations regarding the effect of household technology.…”

“…Few studies from developing countries revealed that household appliances significantly impact the employment of women with lower levels of education (Tewari & Wang, 2021). Recent studies from developing countries showed that access to electricity significantly affects nonagricultural employment (Chhay & Yamazaki, 2021;Tagliapietra et al, 2020). The mixed results of the studies revealed that household technology could provide the different outcomes of female labor supply with other occupations, education, and employment type.…”

“…Concerning age, studies indicated that women are employed later in life due to marriage and children (Chhay & Yamazaki, 2021;Dueso-Barosso, 2019). Some studies highlighted that before marriage, younger women have more possibilities of being employed (Vidart, 2021).…”

“…Following this approach, the literature from developed countries during the technological revolution found that household technology reduced housework time and, as a result, increased the supply of women in the labor market (Bose et al, 2022;Cardia, 2008;Cavalcanti & Tavares, 2008;Greenwood et al, 2005;Vidart, 2021). Developing countries, focusing on the data of the current decade, indicated that the ownership of household appliances (Dueso-Barosso, 2019; Mitschiener & Siy Van, 2018;Omotoso & Obembe, 2016;Tewari & Wang, 2021) or access to electricity (Chhay & Yamazaki, 2021;Grogan & Sadanand, 2013;Tagliapietra et al, 2020) positively affect women employment participation.…”

“…Further, recent studies emphasized that the impact of household modernization on women's employment differ within levels of education (Bose et al, 2022;Tewari & Wang, 2021;Vidart, 2021) and employment type between non-agricultural and agricultural (Chhay & Yamazaki, 2021;Dueso-Barosso, 2019;Tagliapietra et al, 2020). Even though Cardia (2008) scrutinized the effects on some job positions in the United States, no recent study investigates household modernization's impact on occupations in a developing country.…”