Cambodia’s manufacturing industries are experiencing a shortage of skilled labour, especially at the high and mid-skill levels. In the three industrial sectors discussed here, most companies hire low-skilled and low-educated workers who do not have formal vocational skills development (VSD) qualifications. They believe that good quality, industry-specific VSD training would improve the performance of workers, but that the existing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes are of low quality and little relevance to their needs. Thus, they value […]

This publication is a collection of 11 original research papers on six themes: earnings inequality; labour market regulation and wage setting; safety nets for low-income, low-skilled workers; private sector engagement in skills development; implications for labour market policies and institutions of the ASEAN Economic Community; and strategies to scale up investment in programs that support decent job creation and skills training for young people. These themes cover crucial aspects of the labour market in the region and for the target […]

The focus of this report is on household poverty escapes and what explains why some households escape poverty and remain out of poverty (sustainable poverty escape, or resilience), while other households escape poverty only to fall back into poverty (transitory poverty escape) and still other descend into poverty for the first time (impoverishment). Analysis of four rounds of the panel Agriculture, Rural Development and Poverty Reduction Survey in Cambodia spanning 2008-2017 for this case study reveals that just under one-fifth […]

Emigration is a significant and growing phenomenon for Cambodia. Between 2000 and 2015, the stock of Cambodians abroad increased by about 160%, from around half a million to 1.2 million people. Today, about 10% of Cambodians over the age of 15 plan to emigrate. Despite the country’s steady economic growth, labour market demand has not been sufficient to meet the increase in the working population, and poverty remains significant, despite encouraging signs. Many households choose migration as a strategy for […]

This study uses panel data collected in 11 villages in 2011-14 to investigate the impact of microcredit on paddy harvest and income, input costs for paddy production, and self-employment income. The panel data make it possible to implement difference-in-differences and triple-differences estimators. The results show that credit participants have a 26.1 percent increase in paddy income, a 68.9 percent increase in paddy harvest and a 26.5 percent increase in expenditure on farm inputs. Poorer households benefit more from credit participation. […]

Using propensity score matching, this study examines the effects of migration on various indicators of household wellbeing in Cambodia. The results indicate that migration would reduce poverty headcount rate by 3–7 percentage points and decrease the depth of poverty. Migration is also found to reduce by 5–10 percent the hours worked by members left-behind. The impact of migration on labour participation may be, however, vulnerable to unobservable factors. Nevertheless, the study suggests that important heterogeneous effects which differ from the […]