The gendered impacts of COVID-19 and business closure due to lockdown on wage employment in Kenya

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has had a huge shock on labor markets worldwide. However, systematic quantitative evidence documenting the impacts of the pandemic and of the associated government containment measures on employment in African countries, particularly Kenya, is lacking. Using high-frequency panel data survey data for 2020/2021 on COVID-19 in Kenya collected by the World Bank, in collaboration with the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the University of California, Berkeley, this study analyses the impacts of Covid-19 incidence, Covid-19 vulnerability, and business closure due to the government containment measures/lockdown on participation in wage employment. Regression results show that the COVID-19 incidence, the COVID-19 vulnerability, and the business lockdowns had large, negative impacts on paid work, with the males having a significantly increased the probability of wage employment compared to females. We argue that men with Covid-19 infection or symptoms engage in paid work at a higher rate relative to women – with the same condition. It is not clear whether the men’s labor market behavior detected in this data set is due to a greater ability to bear risk or to risk preference.