What Explains the Stagnation of Female Labor Force Participation in Urban India?
Female labor force participation rates in urban India between 1987 and 2011 are surprisingly low and have stagnated since the late 1980s. Despite rising growth, fertility decline, and rising wages and education levels, married women's labor fo...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank Group, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/03/24193840/explains-stagnation-female-labor-force-participation-urban-india http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21668 |
| Summary: | Female labor force participation rates
in urban India between 1987 and 2011 are surprisingly low
and have stagnated since the late 1980s. Despite rising
growth, fertility decline, and rising wages and education
levels, married women's labor force participation
hovered around 18 percent. Analysis of five large
cross-sectional micro surveys shows that a combination of
supply and demand effects have contributed to this
stagnation. The main supply side factors are rising
household incomes and husband's education as well as
the falling selectivity of highly educated women. On the
demand side, the sectors that draw in female workers have
expanded least, so that changes in the sectoral structure of
employment alone would have actually led to declining
participation rates. |
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