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Economic Development and Women's Labor Force Participation in India

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  • Rahul Lahoti
  • Hema Swaminathan

Abstract

India has experienced steady economic growth over the last two decades alongside a persistent decline in women's labor force participation (LFPR). This paper explores the relationship between economic development and women's labor supply using state-level data spanning the period 1983–4 to 2011–2. While several studies suggest a U-shaped relationship between development and women's labor force participation, our results suggest that at the state level, there is no systematic U-shaped relationship between level of domestic product and women's LFPR. On examining the relationship between the structure of the economy and women's economic activity, we find that it is not economic growth but rather the composition of growth that is relevant for women. Further, our results suggest that aggregate changes in the proportion of women in the workforce can be mostly attributed to the movement of the workforce across sectors rather than changes in the proportion of women workers within a sector.

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  • Rahul Lahoti & Hema Swaminathan, 2016. "Economic Development and Women's Labor Force Participation in India," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 168-195, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:22:y:2016:i:2:p:168-195
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2015.1066022
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    Cited by:

    1. Veeramani, Choorikkad & Banerjee, Purna, 2022. "Exchange rate fluctuations, labour laws, and gender differences in job flows: Analysis of manufacturing industries across Indian states," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Nancy Luke, 2019. "Gender and social mobility: Exploring gender attitudes and women's labour force participation," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. 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.
    4. Islam, Asad & Pakrashi, Debayan & Sahoo, Soubhagya & Wang, Liang Choon & Zenou, Yves, 2021. "Gender inequality and caste: Field experimental evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 111-124.
    5. 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).
    6. Seneviratne, Prathi, 2020. "Gender wage inequality during Sri Lanka’s post-reform growth: A distributional analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    7. Dhanaraj, Sowmya & Mahambare, Vidya, 2019. "Family structure, education and women’s employment in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 17-29.
    8. Chen, Yan & Murshed, Muntasir & Sinha, Avik & Alam, Mohammad Mahtab & Khudoykulov, Khurshid, 2024. "Revisiting the resource curse hypothesis from the viewpoint of green growth: The role of Fintech as the de-cursing agent," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    9. Shreya Biswas, 2021. "She Innovates- Female owner and firm innovation in India," Papers 2109.09515, arXiv.org.
    10. Cong Wang & Amjad Naveed, 2021. "Can Women Empowerment Explain Cross-Country Differences in Inequality? A Global Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 667-697, December.
    11. Sapna Goel, 2022. "Effect of Deagrarianization at the Household Level on the Scale and Nature of Women’s Work in Rural India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 1053-1082, December.
    12. Lv, Zhike & Yang, Rudai, 2018. "Does women’s participation in politics increase female labor participation? Evidence from panel data analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 35-38.
    13. Varsha P. S. & Gayathri Reddy K. & Sudheendra Rao L. N. & Amit Kumar, 2019. "Impact of self-help groups, capacity building measures and perceived tension on women empowerment- an empirical study," Asian Journal of Empirical Research, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(3), pages 65-87, March.
    14. Nthabeleng Lillian Moshoeshoe & Baorong Yu, 2021. "Economic Growth and Participation of Women in Labor Markets: The Case of Southern Africa," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(1), pages 30-41.
    15. Lahiri, Bidisha & Daramola, Richard, 2023. "Effects of credit and labor constraints on microenterprises and the unintended impact of changes in household endowments: Use of threshold estimation to detect heterogeneity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 21-38.
    16. 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.
    17. Ganguly, Sujata & Nikolova, Elena, 2024. "The benefits of considering gender in economic development," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1497, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    18. Gautam Kumar Das & Nijara Deka, 2024. "Rural Non-Farm Sector Employment in the North-Eastern Region of India: Determinants and Implications for Wellbeing," NCAER Working Papers 164, National Council of Applied Economic Research.
    19. Antara Bhattacharyya & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2020. "Does U Feminisation Work in Female Labour Force Participation Rate? India: A Case Study," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(1), pages 143-160, March.

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