Who is Deprived? Who Feels Deprived? Labor Deprivation, Youth, and Gender in Morocco

Abstract

The paper provides a method to better understand how objective conditions of deprivation are translated into subjective feelings of deprivation using a strand of the recent literature on relative deprivation, and applies this method to labor deprivation in Morocco. We postulate that gender norms are associated with identity and the reference group that people compare themselves with. We find that the reference group plays a pivotal role in understanding how feelings of labor deprivation are generated and this can explain the apparent mismatch between objective conditions of deprivation and subjective feelings of deprivation related to joblessness among young men and women. It can also potentially help governments design public policies that address objective conditions of deprivation, such as unemployment, with a better understanding of subjective implications.

Keywords: labor participation, Morocco, reference groups, relative deprivation, subjective deprivation

JEL Classification: D30, D63, I31