Wages and inequality in the Egyptian labor market in an era of financial crisis and revolution

Abstract EN

This paper investigates the pattern of wages and wage inequality in Egypt over the period 1988-2012, a time of substantial economic and political changes, including the recent global financial crises and the January 25th 2011 revolution.

This analysis is based on four nationally representative labor market surveys : the special round of the Egyptian Labor Force Sample Survey (LFSS) carried out in October 1988, the 1998 Egypt Labor Market Survey (ELMS), and the 2006 and 2012 rounds of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS).

The analysis in the paper proceeds as follows.

Section 2 introduces the main stylized facts and structural features of real wage and inequality in the Egyptian labor market during the recent liberalization episodes.

Section 3 describes the wage determination model used in calculating wage differentials and returns to education.

Section 4 discusses the wage estimation results, while focusing on public-private and gender wage gaps and changes in returns to education over the past decade.

Finally, section 5 concludes and draws implications for the reform of the labor market in the wake of the financial crisis.

JEL Classification : J3