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Youth Unemployment and Earnings in Africa: Evidence from Tanzanian Retrospective Data

Bridges, Sarah; Fox, Louise; Gaggero, Alessio; Owens, Trudy

Authors

Louise Fox

Alessio Gaggero

TRUDY OWENS trudy.owens@nottingham.ac.uk
Associate Professor



Abstract

We exploit a unique data set of individual labour market histories in urban Tanzania to estimate the effect of early labour market experiences on adult labour market outcomes. We consider four labour market entry states—wage employment, self-employment, unpaid worker in the family business and unemployed job-seeker—and estimate how final earnings are associated with each entry state. The findings suggest that how individuals enter the labour market does matter for final earnings. We find that an initial period spent in wage employment is associated with an important earnings premium. We interpret this finding as evidence of the entrapment hypothesis, in that, people who enter the labour market in more disadvantaged positions, such as in the household enterprise, either as self-employed or as unpaid family workers, suffer a penalty in their future earnings. These findings persist after controlling for family specific fixed effects.

Citation

Bridges, S., Fox, L., Gaggero, A., & Owens, T. (2017). Youth Unemployment and Earnings in Africa: Evidence from Tanzanian Retrospective Data. Journal of African Economies, 26(2), 119-139. https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejw020

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 15, 2016
Online Publication Date Oct 31, 2016
Publication Date Mar 1, 2017
Deposit Date Nov 4, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of African Economies
Print ISSN 0963-8024
Electronic ISSN 1464-3723
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 26
Issue 2
Pages 119-139
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejw020
Keywords Labour market entry, Youth unemployment, Wage equation
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/820263
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejw020
Additional Information This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Journal of African Economies following peer review. The version of record Sarah Bridges,
Louise Fox, Alessio Gaggero, and Trudy Owens Youth Unemployment and Earnings in Africa: Evidence from Tanzanian Retrospective Data J Afr Econ (2016)
doi: 10.1093/jae/ejw020 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejw020

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