UNU-WIDER Health and Labour Market Participation in Uganda

The paucity of non-agricultural paid employment, and under utilization of female labour in Uganda, and other sub-Saharan African countries, is often seen to be the next major obstacle to further poverty reduction and development in the region. Despite this there have been few empirical investigations that examine the key determinants of labour market participation for the region. By using nationally representative household data from Uganda this paper identifies some of the key supply side determinants of participation. Here we instrument for self-reported health and find that conditional on participation ill health lowers the likelihood of being in the formal labour market. In addition and perhaps more worryingly, these negative effects are stronger for women than men.