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Who Can Work and Study from Home in Pakistan: Evidence from a 2018-19 Nationwide Household Survey

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Who Can Work and Study from Home in Pakistan: Evidence from a 2018-19 Nationwide Household Survey Economics Working Papers 8-5-2020 Working Paper Number 20010 Who Can Work and Study from Home in Pakistan: Evidence from a 2018-19 Nationwide Household Survey Syed Hasan Lahore University of Management Sciences Attique Rehman Lahore University of Management Sciences Wendong Zhang Iowa State University, [email protected] Original Release Date: May 2, 2020 Revision: August 5, 2020 Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/econ_workingpapers Part of the Health Economics Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Labor Economics Commons, Regional Economics Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons Recommended Citation Hasan, Syed; Rehman, Attique; and Zhang, Wendong, "Who Can Work and Study from Home in Pakistan: Evidence from a 2018-19 Nationwide Household Survey" (2020). Economics Working Papers: Department of Economics, Iowa State University. 20010. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/econ_workingpapers/105 Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran. Inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies may be directed to Office ofqual E Opportunity, 3350 Beardshear Hall, 515 Morrill Road, Ames, Iowa 50011, Tel. 515 294-7612, Hotline: 515-294-1222, email [email protected]. This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please visit lib.dr.iastate.edu. Who Can Work and Study from Home in Pakistan: Evidence from a 2018-19 Nationwide Household Survey Abstract In this article, we examine the feasibility of working and studying from home in Pakistan. We take advantage of the recently released 2018–19 Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey. PSLM is a nationally representative household survey with extensive information on employment outcomes, children’s educational attainment, as well as internet and computer access and prior usage information. Modifying Dingel and Neiman [2020]’s approach, we define the easibilityf of jobs that can be done from home based on the percentage of tasks that can be switched online and accounting for internet accessibility. We also investigate the possibilities for students to study from home via TV or internet. We find that only 10% of jobs in Pakistan can be done from home; however, megacities have much higher rates and rural areas have lower rates. In addition, many of Pakistan’s male workers are in low-skill, low-paying service industries and cannot work from home, while occupations with a higher female employment share have a relatively higher work-from-home share despite lower percentage of prior internet use. Our results also highlight the homeschooling challenges Pakistan’s students face given the low rates of television and internet access. The government’s outreach effort through the new Teleschool TV channel could help alleviate pre-existing gender inequalities in access to education. Keywords COVID-19, Occupations, Tasks, Pakistan, Work from Home, Distance Learning Disciplines Health Economics | Inequality and Stratification | Labor conomicsE | Regional Economics | Work, Economy and Organizations This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/econ_workingpapers/105 Who Can Work and Study from Home in Pakistan: Evidence from a 2018-19 Nationwide Household Survey Syed M. Hasan Associate Professor, Department of Economics Lahore University of Management Sciences D.H.A, Lahore Cantt. 54792, Lahore, Pakistan Email: [email protected] Phone: +92-331-5036704 Attique Rehman Adjunct Faculty, Department of Economics Lahore University of Management Sciences Email: [email protected] Wendong Zhang Assistant Professor, Department of Economics and Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University 478C Heady Hall, 518 Farmhouse Lane, Ames, Iowa 50011 Email: [email protected] Phone: 515-294-2536 / Fax: 515-294-0221 Acknowledgement This work was supported by the Department of Economics, LUMS, Lahore and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project [101,030]. The authors would like to thank Nathan Cook and Kate Epstein for their valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier draft. Who Can Work and Study from Home in Pakistan: Evidence from a 2018-19 Nationwide Household Survey August 5, 2020 Abstract In this article, we examine the feasibility of working and studying from home in Pakistan. We take advantage of the recently released 2018{19 Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey. PSLM is a nationally representative household survey with extensive information on employment outcomes, children's educational attainment, as well as internet and computer access and prior usage information. Modifying Dingel and Neiman [2020]'s approach, we define the feasibility of jobs that can be done from home based on the percentage of tasks that can be switched online and accounting for internet accessibility. We also investigate the possibilities for students to study from home via TV or internet. We find that only 10% of jobs in Pakistan can be done from home; however, megacities have much higher rates and rural areas have lower rates. In addition, many of Pakistan's male workers are in low-skill, low-paying service industries and cannot work from home, while occupations with a higher female employment share have a relatively higher work-from-home share de- spite lower percentage of prior internet use. Our results also highlight the homeschooling challenges Pakistan's students face given the low rates of television and internet access. The government's outreach effort through the new Teleschool TV channel could help alleviate pre-existing gender inequalities in access to education. Keywords: COVID-19, Occupations, Tasks, Pakistan, Work from Home, Distance Learning JEL Codes: D24, J22, R12, R23, I24, O53 1 Who Can Work and Study from Home in Pakistan: Evidence from a 2018-19 Nationwide Household Survey Word Count: 3,460 1 Introduction COVID-19 poses heterogeneous global challenges. In many developing countries, disease containment and suppression through non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as lockdowns, have spurred massive layoffs and sustenance issues. Enforcing lockdowns leads to a paradox- ical situation|it is essential to prevent the infection's spread and “flatten the curve," but those at the lower end of the income distribution will struggle to survive due to economic impacts, as highlighted by Mobarak and Barnett-Howell [2020]. The absence of a social security mechanism to cover unemployment claims and the prevalence of informal workers in the economy makes COVID-19 management a daunting task for Pakistani government. Uncertainty has been high for the overall economy, and particularly acute for the education sector, as COVID-19's highly contagious nature will limit traditional learning institutions' roles in the near future, which demands specifically designed and targeted policy interven- tions to mitigate economic and learning losses. As lockdowns seem inevitable and pervasive, we need to analyze the feasibility of working and studying from home thoroughly. Previous research focusing on the developed economies, such as [Dingel and Neiman, 2020, Gottlieb et al., 2020], indicates a high capacity for significant transition to home-based online options for work and education. However, we need to determine how a similar transition will work for Pakistan, a developing country with the world's sixth-largest population and significant regional and gender-based disparities. The nature of jobs, the possession of digital devices, internet access, prior technology ex- posure, and requisite training provision are important factors we must analyze to determine if home-based online work and education options are attainable for a developing country like Pakistan. Pakistan is likely to suffer heavily due to lockdown [Nafees and Khan, 2020], as high-skilled services in finance and information technology are only around 10% of its total workforce [Sharma, 2019], and most sectors cannot switch easily to online service. E- commerce platforms use is extremely limited in Pakistan, and even such jobs often require 1 face-to-face interaction. Furthermore, distance learning is also constrained by the limited access to internet and computers, as well as teacher's lack of prior exposure to them. We use Pakistan's 2018{19 Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey data [Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan, 2020] to assess the extent to which workers and students could work or study from home. PSLM is a nation- ally representative household survey with extensive information on employment outcomes, children's educational attainment, and internet, computer and TV access information. An- alyzing occupational codes at 4-digit level and internet availability across rural and urban regions, we adapt Dingel and Neiman [2020]'s approach to determine what percentage of Pakistan's labor force can switch to online work, while explicitly accounting for limited access to mobile or broadband internet. We also examine differences in rural and urban workers' and male and female workers' abilities to switch to online work. Finally, we use the PSLM survey to assess the degree to which students could study from home using computers, TVs, or mobile phones during school
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