Transitions in a West African labour market: The role of family networks

This paper sheds light on the role of family networks in the dynamics of a West African labour market, i.e. in the transitions from unemployment to employment, from wage employment to self-employment, and from self-employment to wage employment. It investigates the effects of three dimensions of family networks on these transitions: their structure, the strength of their ties, and the resources embedded in them. For this purpose, we use a first-hand survey conducted in Ouagadougou on a representative sample of 2000 households. Using event history data and very detailed information on family networks, we estimate proportional hazard models for discrete-time data. We find that family networks have a significant effect on the dynamics of workers in the labour market and that this effect differs depending on the type of transition and the dimension of the family network considered. Network size appears not to matter much in labour market dynamics. However, strong ties play a stabilizing role by limiting large transitions. Their negative effect on transitions is reinforced by a high level of resources embedded in the network.