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There are a dearth of studies that directly focus on women engaged in vulnerable employment in developing countries. Our study empirically investigates the factors that determine the large share of contributing family workers in the total employment of women in Pakistan in order to underscore the severity of vulnerable employment among women. The study utilizes the logit model for the primary empirical analysis and employs the recent and previously unexplored Pakistan Labor Force Surveys of 2014-15 and 2018-19 to conduct the econometric analysis. To explore the factors associated with women's vulnerable employment in Pakistan, our study segregates the employment statuses into vulnerable and non-vulnerable employment. The unpaid/contributing family workers are used as a proxy for vulnerable employment, whereas women working as paid employees are used as a proxy for non-vulnerable employment. The empirical findings reveal that predominantly girls aged 10 to 14 are engaged as unpaid or contributing family workers. Additionally, large household size is found to increase the likelihood of women working as contributing family workers, whereas a woman's migration status reduces this likelihood. Women's education is found to be a significant factor in helping to secure decent employment. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to empirically highlight this issue at the policy level for Pakistan, using the latest survey data. To gain policy insights, our findings can be generalized to any developing country where a large percentage of women are engaged as contributing family workers. To steer the women who are contributing family workers away from vulnerable employment, our study proposes that it is essential to invest in women's education, as well as to initiate skill development programs to reap community-wide benefits from women's employment. Keywords: Working women, Vulnerable employment, Contributing family workers, Pakistan, Labor force, Introduction The quality of employment is closely connected to employment status and also reflects the working conditions of employees. Many other aspects of working life are essential to consider to [...]

In the past decade, researchers have shifted their interests to explore different ways to mitigate environmental degradation. In that context, the present study explores the role of solar energy and eco‐innovation in reducing environmental degradation in China. The study utilized data for the period 1990–2018 and applied the latest available econometric technique, a quantile autoregressive distributed lag model, to determine the impacts of solar energy and eco‐innovation on improving China's environmental quality. According to the empirical results, in the long term, solar energy is negatively and significantly associated with CO2 emissions at higher quantiles. Eco‐innovation has proven to be the most important channel to mitigate CO2 emissions in China. Eco‐innovation is exerting a negative and significant influence on CO2 emissions at all quantiles in the long term. In addition, the population size is causing CO2 emissions to surge significantly at lower quantiles. The empirical analysis reveals that per capita income (PI) is positively associated with CO2 emissions at all quantiles, but it is significant only at higher quantiles in China. We found evidence of unidirectional causality for eco‐innovation to CO2 emissions and solar energy to CO2 emissions. However, for population and CO2 emissions, per capita income, and CO2 emissions, we found bidirectional causality. As indicated by our empirical results, solar energy and eco‐innovation are the two most effective channels to control CO2 emissions in China. Therefore, policies based on the promotion of eco‐innovation and the initiation of new solar energy projects can control emissions and improve environmental quality in China. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:555–571. © 2021 SETAC KEY POINTS: The present study explores the role of solar energy and eco‐innovation in reducing environmental degradation in China. In the long term, solar energy is negatively and significantly associated with CO2 emissions at higher quantiles. Eco‐innovation has proven to be the most important channel to mitigate CO2 emissions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the nonlinear ARDL approach is introduced in advanced econometric, some old relationships are getting new empirical attention. Therefore, we examine the asymmetric macroeconomic determinants of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in China, covering the time from 1971 to 2019 and using a nonlinear ARDL model. The study results show that GDP and industrialization have an asymmetric effect on CO2 emission in long-run in direction and magnitude, while agriculturalization has also an asymmetric effect on environmental pollution in magnitude, but not in the direction. In short, GDP and industrialization have also asymmetric response on CO2 emissions in the short term only in magnitude, but agriculturalization has an asymmetric response in magnitude and direction in short-run. Therefore, this empirical research is more applicable for policymakers in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the issue of out of labor force women in Pakistan, one of the possible causes of the lowest FLFP rate of Pakistan amongst the South Asian regional countries. The study uses PSLM (2013-14) household survey data and explores different socioeconomic and demographic factors which are influencing educated women to stay out of the labor force. It concludes that women, who belong to the younger age groups living in urban areas, belonging to higher consumption groups, who have the youngest children at home are more likely to be out of the labor force. The women whose employment decisions are taken by the heads of the households are also more likely to be out of the labor force. As the education levels of the women increase, they are less likely to stay out of the labor force. The results of the study provides useful insights to policymakers to formulate different policies to motivate women to participate in labor market activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]