IWS Documented News INTERNATIONAL

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies                 Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations          Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor                  Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016                      Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

Export Processing Zone Expansion in an African Country: What are the Labor Market and Gender Impacts?
By Peter Glick (Cornell University) and François Roubaud (DIAL/Cipré)
Paper prepared for the conference
“African Development and Poverty Reduction: The Macro-Micro Linkage”
Cape Town, South Africa
October 2004
http://www.cfnpp.cornell.edu/images/wp175.pdf
[full-text, 46 pages]

ABSTRACT
This study seeks to understand the labor market (employment and earnings) and gender impacts of the
dramatic recent expansion of the export processing zone (the Zone Franche) in urban Madagascar. It is
distinguished from most earlier empirical analysis of this subject by its use of micro data collected
annually over the 1995-2002 period, and by its focus on a setting in Africa, where export processing
manufacturing generally has yet to make significant inroads. As in other EPZs, workers in the Zone
Franche are predominantly female, semi-skilled, and young. Controlling for worker characteristics,
earnings in the Zone Franche are comparable to the private formal employment, lower than in the public
sector, but much higher than in informal wage employment. By disproportionately drawing women from
the low wage informal sector (where gender pay gaps are very large) to relatively well paid export
processing jobs (where pay is not only higher but also similar for men and women), Zone Franche growth
has the potential to contribute substantially to improved overall gender equity in earnings in the urban
economy. Still, it is too early to judge whether the sector will be a source a source of long term
employment characterized by continued investments in worker human capital and job advancement, or
instead will conform more to the stereotypical negative picture of offering only short term jobs providing
few transferable skills.
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

****************************************
Stuart Basefsky                 *
Director, IWS News Bureau               *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School                      *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor            *
New York, NY 10016                      *
                                        *
Telephone: (607) 255-2703               *
Fax: (607) 255-9641                     *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                *
****************************************