Maternal employment in high-value agriculture and child nutrition: Evidence from the Ethiopian cut-flower industry
利用埃塞俄比亚调查数据，研究女性在花卉产业就业对0-5岁儿童营养状况的影响，发现母亲就业会降低儿童身高和体重指标，主要因为减少了育儿时间和膳食质量，但增加了家庭收入和女性财务自主权。
• Maternal employment in floriculture negatively affects child nutritional status. • Floriculture employment reduces women’s time for childcare and diet quality. • Yet, floriculture employment increases female financial autonomy. • It increases total household income mainly for poorer households. • Policy action needed to improve conditions and avoid undesirable social outcomes. In many low- and middle-income countries, agri-food supply chains are transforming rapidly. One important feature of this transformation is growth in certain high-value agricultural subsectors, such as horticulture and cut-flowers for export. Growth in high-value agriculture often creates new employment opportunities, especially for women. More employment can lead to higher rural incomes, but the broader implications for social welfare are not yet sufficiently understood. Here, we use survey data from Ethiopia to investigate the effects of women’s employment in floriculture on child nutrition, focusing on children aged 0–5 years. We develop and estimate endogenous switching regressions to account for possible endogeneity. Our results suggest that maternal employment in floriculture negatively affects child height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores (HAZ and WAZ). Exploration of the underlying mechanisms reveals that floriculture employment may influence time allocation, dietary quality, income, and female financial autonomy. Maternal employment is negatively associated with time spent on childcare and consumption of animal-sourced foods.