Child Disability and Mothers' Labour Market Participation in Cameroon

Abstract

Abstract This study seeks to evaluate the effect of a child's disability on the mothers' labour market participation capturing heterogeneity according to mother's level of education. It uses data from the 2011 Demographic and Health-National Mutiple Indicators Cluster Survey (DHS-MICS) of Cameroon. In order to allow for endogeneity bias and the fact that a disability may impose various types of constraints on a family, two disability indicators were constructed. These distinguish between children with a healthcare-cost-intensive disability and those with a time-intensive one. The results obtained show that having a child whose disability requires high healthcare expenditures increases the probability that a non-graduated mother will be employed by 12%, and that she will work full-year by 3% and seasonally by 6%. Where the child's disability imposes time constraints, the probability of working all the year for the non-graduated mother is reduced by 14%. No significant effect is found for graduated mothers. It is important, therefore, that policymakers take account of the variety of costs imposed by a child's disability and heterogeneous effects according to mother's level of education.