IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/mareco/v15y2021i1p149-173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Vocational Training Promote Female Labour Force Participation? An Analysis for India

Author

Listed:
  • Indrajit Bairagya

    (Indrajit Bairagya (corresponding author) is at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, India.)

  • Tulika Bhattacharya

    (Tulika Bhattacharya is with the Department of Economics, St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore, India. Email-mail: tulika.0588@gmail.com)

  • Pragati Tiwari

    (Pragati Tiwari is at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, India. Email-mail: pragatitiwari@nls.ac.in)

Abstract

The objective of the article is to assess the impact of formal and informal vocational training on female labour force participation in India, based on the Periodic Labour Force Survey data for 2017–2018, employing a trivariate probit model. Results show that participation both in formal and informal vocational training has a positive and statistically significant impact on female labour force participation across all specifications of the regression models, thus showing the robustness of the relationship. Most importantly, the provision of vocational training helps break the traditional U-shaped relationship between female labour force participation and educational levels. However, the fact that the percentage of formal vocational training holders is much lower than that of informal vocational training holders and that it varies among males and females, points to the need for special policy attention on the promotion of female participation in formal vocational training on a large scale. JEL Codes: J21, J24, J71

Suggested Citation

  • Indrajit Bairagya & Tulika Bhattacharya & Pragati Tiwari, 2021. "Does Vocational Training Promote Female Labour Force Participation? An Analysis for India," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 15(1), pages 149-173, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:mareco:v:15:y:2021:i:1:p:149-173
    DOI: 10.1177/0973801020976601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0973801020976601
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0973801020976601?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher Baum & Yingying Dong & Arthur Lewbel & Tao Yang, 2012. "Binary choice models with endogenous regressors," SAN12 Stata Conference 9, Stata Users Group.
    2. Keane, Michael P, 1994. "A Computationally Practical Simulation Estimator for Panel Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(1), pages 95-116, January.
    3. Sher Singh Verick, 2017. "The puzzles and contradictions of the Indian labour market: What will the future of work look like?," ASARC Working Papers 2017-02, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    4. Bairagya, Indrajit & Bhattacharya, Tulika & Bhattacharjee, Manojit, 2020. "Impact of Credit Accessibility on the Earnings of Self-employed Businesses in India," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Sanghamitra Kanjilal-Bhaduri & Francesco Pastore, 2018. "Returns to Education and Female Participation Nexus: Evidence from India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(3), pages 515-536, September.
    6. Fletcher, Erin K. & Pande, Rohini & Moore, Charity Troyer, 2019. "Women and Work in India: Descriptive Evidence and a Review of Potential Policies," India Policy Forum, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 15(1), pages 149-216.
    7. repec:iza:izawol:journl:y:2014:p:87 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Kapsos, Steven. & Bourmpoula, Evangelia. & Silberman, Andrea., 2014. "Why is female labour force participation declining so sharply in India?," ILO Working Papers 994949190702676, International Labour Organization.
    9. repec:ilo:ilowps:486789 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Chaudhary, Ruchika. & Verick, Sher., 2014. "Female labour force participation in India and beyond," ILO Working Papers 994867893402676, International Labour Organization.
    11. Sher Verick, 2014. "Female labor force participation in developing countries," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-87, September.
    12. Klasen, Stephan & Pieters, Janneke, 2012. "Push or Pull? Drivers of Female Labor Force Participation during India's Economic Boom," IZA Discussion Papers 6395, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Jason Fletcher, 2013. "Adolescent Depression and Adult Labor Market Outcomes," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 80(1), pages 26-49, July.
    14. Lorenzo Cappellari & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2003. "Multivariate probit regression using simulated maximum likelihood," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(3), pages 278-294, September.
    15. The World Bank,, 2010. "India's Employment Challenge: Creating Jobs, Helping Workers," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198063513.
    16. Farzana Afridi & Taryn Dinkelman & Kanika Mahajan, 2018. "Why are fewer married women joining the work force in rural India? A decomposition analysis over two decades," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(3), pages 783-818, July.
    17. Mehrotra, Santosh & Parida, Jajati K., 2017. "Why is the Labour Force Participation of Women Declining in India?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 360-380.
    18. Cuong Viet Nguyen & Marrit Berg, 2014. "Informal Credit, Usury, or Support? A Case Study for Vietnam," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 52(2), pages 154-178, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bairagya, Indrajit, 2021. "Impact of formal vocational training on the earnings of self-employed individuals in rural India," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sanghamitra Kanjilal-Bhaduri & Francesco Pastore, 2018. "Returns to Education and Female Participation Nexus: Evidence from India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(3), pages 515-536, September.
    2. Isha Gupta, 2020. "Fertility And Mothers’ Labour Force Participation In Rural India," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0267, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    3. Gupta, Tanu & Negi, Digvijay, 2021. "Daughter Vs. Daughter-in-Law: Kinship Roles and Women’s Time Use in India," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315021, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Deshpande, Ashwini & Singh, Jitendra, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed Out or Can’t Get in? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," IZA Discussion Papers 14639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Ashwini Deshpande & Jitendra Singh, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed out or Can't Get In? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," Working Papers 65, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    6. Kanjilal-Bhaduri, Sanghamitra & Pastore, Francesco, 2018. "Returns to Education and Female Work Force Participation Nexus: Evidence from India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 162, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Parida, Jajati Keshari & Bhagavatula, Niharika, 2023. "The labour market dilemma of young urban women in India: An outcome of family welfare optimization," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    8. Deeksha Tayal & Sourabh Paul, 2021. "Labour Force Participation Rate of Women in Urban India: An Age-Cohort-Wise Analysis," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 565-593, September.
    9. Sonalde Desai & Omkar Joshi, 2019. "The Paradox of Declining Female Work Participation in an Era of Economic Growth," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(1), pages 55-71, March.
    10. Mehrotra, Santosh & Parida, Jajati K., 2017. "Why is the Labour Force Participation of Women Declining in India?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 360-380.
    11. Amrita Datta & Tanuka Endow & Balwant Singh Mehta, 2020. "Education, Caste and Women’s Work in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(2), pages 387-406, June.
    12. Sarkar, Sudipa & Sahoo, Soham & Klasen, Stephan, 2019. "Employment transitions of women in India: A panel analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 291-309.
    13. Deshpande, Ashwini & Kabeer, Naila, 2024. "Norms that matter: Exploring the distribution of women’s work between income generation, expenditure-saving and unpaid domestic responsibilities in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    14. Amaresh Dubey & Wendy Olsen & Kunal Sen, 2017. "The Decline in the Labour Force Participation of Rural Women in India: Taking a Long-Run View," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(4), pages 589-612, December.
    15. Mustafizur Rahman & Marzuka Md. Al-Hasan, 2019. "Women in Bangladesh Labour Market: Determinants of Participation, Gender Wage Gap and Returns to Schooling," CPD Working Paper 124, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    16. Varsha Gupta, 2021. "Female Employment in India: Tracking Trends During 2005–2019," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 803-823, September.
    17. Chi-Wei Su & Zheng-Zheng Li & Ran Tao & Oana-Ramona Lobonţ, 2019. "Can economic development boost the active female labor force?," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 1021-1036, March.
    18. Ishita Pal & Balhasan Ali & Preeti Dhillon & Neelanjana Pandey, 2021. "Factors Determining Paid and Unpaid Work in Young Adults: Evidence from a Cohort Study in Bihar, India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(1), pages 133-153, March.
    19. Nandi, Arijit & Agarwal, Parul & Chandrashekar, Anoushaka & Harper, Sam, 2020. "Access to affordable daycare and women’s economic opportunities: evidence from a cluster randomised intervention in India," OSF Preprints du3xg, Center for Open Science.
    20. Megan Reed, 2020. "The labor force participation of Indian women before and after widowhood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(24), pages 673-706.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Female Labour Force Participation; Indian Labour Force; Skill India; Formal Vocational Training; Informal Vocational Training; Trivariate Probit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:mareco:v:15:y:2021:i:1:p:149-173. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ncaer.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.