CORNELL UNIVERSITY. DIV. OF NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES. CORNELL FOOD AND NUTRITION POLICY PROGRAM
Labor force participation, sectoral choice, and earnings in Conakry, Guinea
This study presents one of the few efforts to date to analyze the determinants of labor force participation, sector of employment, and earnings in a sub-Saharan African economy; it analyzes the labor market in Conakry, Guinea, a rapidly expanding city of 1 million people.
Glick, Peter; Sahn, David · 1993
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Abstract
Based on data derived from a survey of 1,725 households, Conakry"s labor market is found to be segmented into four sectors: self-employment (primarily in very small enterprises); wage and salaried employment in the private sector; wage employment in the public sector; and non-participation. Using a multinomial logit model, the study analyzes and cross-correlates the effects of age, gender, educational level, technical/vocational training, ethnicity, residency, marital status, capital stock (in the case of private enterprises), and migrant status upon labor force participation rates and earnings levels in each sector. Identifying constraints to women"s income-earning opportunities as an important policy concern, the study emphasizes the differences in male and female labor force participation, sector of employment, and earnings. One of the important contributions of the study is its finding that investments in education increase earnings in small self-employment enterprises as well as in the formal or wage sector. Another significant finding is that civil service wage structure provides poor motivation for higher-level employees. The policy implications of these and other findings are outlined.
