IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp13815.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Gendered Division of Paid and Unpaid Work: Evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Deshpande, Ashwini

    (Ashoka University)

Abstract

Examining high frequency national-level panel data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) on paid work (employment), unpaid work (time spent on domestic work) and incomes, this paper examines the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the gender gaps in paid and unpaid work through the lockdown and recovery phases. The first month of the national lockdown, April 2020, saw a large contraction in employment for both men and women, where more men lost jobs in absolute terms. Employment has recovered by August 2020 for men. However, for women, the likelihood of being employed is 9.5 percentage points lower than that for men, compared to the pre-pandemic period. Men spent more time on housework in April 2020, but by August the average male hours had declined, though not to the pre-pandemic levels. Time spent with friends fell sharply for both men and women in April, to recover in August, but not to the pre-pandemic levels. The paper also examines available income data to find the sharpest contraction of incomes in the rural sector for both men and women.

Suggested Citation

  • Deshpande, Ashwini, 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Gendered Division of Paid and Unpaid Work: Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 13815, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13815
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp13815.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Yuan, Song, 2022. "Demographic Shocks and Women’s Labor Market Participation: Evidence from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 875-912, September.
    2. Alison Andrew & Sarah Cattan & Monica Costa Dias & Christine Farquharson & Lucy Kraftman & Sonya Krutikova & Angus Phimister & Almudena Sevilla, 2022. "The gendered division of paid and domestic work under lockdown," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 325-340, December.
    3. Ashwini Deshpande & Naila Kabeer, 2019. "(In)Visibility, Care and Cultural Barriers: The Size and Shape of Women's Work in India," Working Papers 1016, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    4. Clarence D. Long, 1958. "The Labor Force under Changing Income and Employment," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number long58-1.
    5. Sabarwal, Shwetlena & Sinha, Nistha & Buvinic, Mayra, 2010. "How do women weather economic shocks ? a review of the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5496, The World Bank.
    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. Alfonsi, Livia & Namubiru, Mary & Spaziani, Sara, 2022. "Gender Gaps: Back and Here to Stay? Evidence from Skilled Ugandan Workers during COVID-19," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt44s4b2dk, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    2. Nikita Sangwan & Swati Sharma, 2022. "Labor Market Shocks, Social Protection And Women’s Work," IEG Working Papers 453, Institute of Economic Growth.
    3. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Nguyen, Cuong Viet & Carletto, Calogero, 2023. "Did a successful fight against COVID-19 come at a cost? Impacts of the pandemic on employment outcomes in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    4. Farzana Afridi & Amrita Dhillon & Sanchari Roy, 2021. "The gendered crisis: livelihoods and mental well-being in India during COVID-19," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-65, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Edward Miguel, 2022. "The Economics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poor Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 253-285, August.
    6. Hai-Anh H. Dang & Cuong Viet Nguyen, 2024. "Agricultural Production as a Coping Strategy during the Covid-19 Pandemic? Evidence from Rural Viet Nam," Working Papers DP-2023-23, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    7. Chakravorty, Bhaskar & Bhatiya, Apurav Yash & Imbert, Clément & Lohnert, Maximilian & Panda, Poonam & Rathelot, Roland, 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 Crisis on Rural Youth: Evidence from a Panel Survey and an Experiment," GLO Discussion Paper Series 909, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Sinha Roy,Sutirtha & Van Der Weide,Roy, 2022. "Poverty in India Has Declined over the Last Decade But Not As Much As Previously Thought," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9994, The World Bank.
    9. Bina Agarwal, 2022. "Imperatives of recognising the complexities: gendered impacts and responses to COVID-19 in India," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(1), pages 31-53, April.
    10. Dharshani Thennakoon & Shalini Dananja Kumari Wanninayake & Pavithra Kailasapathy, 2022. "Honey, How Can I Help? Gender and Distribution of Unpaid Labour during COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-17, November.
    11. Palacios-Lopez,Amparo & Newhouse,David Locke & Pape,Utz Johann & Khamis,Melanie & Weber,Michael & Prinz,Daniel, 2021. "The Early Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries : Evidence from High-Frequency Phone Surveys," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9510, The World Bank.

    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. Ashwini Deshpande, 2022. "The Covid-19 pandemic and gendered division of paid work, domestic chores and leisure: evidence from India’s first wave," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(1), pages 75-100, April.
    2. Deshpande, Ashwini, 2020. "The Covid-19 Pandemic and Lockdown: First Order Effects on Gender Gaps in Employment and Domestic Time Use in India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 607, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. C. Lee, 1998. "Life Cycle Savings in the United States, 1900-1990," CPE working papers 0014, University of Chicago - Centre for Population Economics.
    4. Ken-Ichi Watanabe, 1982. "An Adaptation of Weintraub’s Model," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 228-245, December.
    5. Chad Turner & Robert Tamura & Sean Mulholland & Scott Baier, 2007. "Education and income of the states of the United States: 1840–2000," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 101-158, June.
    6. Arthur Kraft, 1973. "Preference Orderings As Determinants Of The Labor Force Behavior Of Married Women," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 11(3), pages 270-284, September.
    7. Ayhan, Sinem H., 2015. "Evidence of Added Worker Effect from the 2008 Economic Crisis," IZA Discussion Papers 8937, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Pedro Nuno Teixeira, 2011. "A reluctant founding father: Placing Jacob Mincer in the history of (labor) economics," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(5), pages 673-695, December.
    9. Ondřej Dvouletý & Martin Lukeš & Mihaela Vancea, 2020. "Individual-level and family background determinants of young adults’ unemployment in Europe," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 389-409, May.
    10. Alison Andrew & Sarah Cattan & Monica Costa Dias & Christine Farquharson & Lucy Kraftman & Sonya Krutikova & Angus Phimister & Almudena Sevilla, 2022. "The gendered division of paid and domestic work under lockdown," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 325-340, December.
    11. Leonardo Fabio Morales & Leonardo Bonilla‐Mejía & Jose Pulido & Luz A. Flórez & Didier Hermida & Karen L. Pulido‐Mahecha & Francisco Lasso‐Valderrama, 2022. "Effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the Colombian labour market: Disentangling the effect of sector‐specific mobility restrictions," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 308-357, February.
    12. Elisa Brini & Stefani Scherer & Agnese Vitali, 2024. "Gender and Beyond: Employment Patterns during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(3), pages 1-23, June.
    13. Mayra Buvinic & Monica Das Gupta & Ursula Casabonne & Philip Verwimp, 2013. "Violent Conflict and Gender Inequality: An Overview," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 110-138, February.
    14. Julie L. Hotchkiss & M. Melinda Pitts & John C. Robertson, 2008. "The Push-Pull Effects of the Information Technology Boom and Bust," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 22(3), pages 200-212, August.
    15. T. Aldrich Finegan & Robert A. Margo, 1993. "Added and Discouraged Workers in the Late 1930s: A Re-Examination," NBER Historical Working Papers 0045, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Núria Sánchez-Mira & Laura Bernardi & Benjamin Moles-Kalt & Cléolia Sabot, 2021. "The Reshaping of Daily Time during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lone Parent’s Work-Family Articulation in a Low-Intensity Lockdown," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-25, June.
    17. Latika Chaudhary & Fenske, James, 2020. "Did railways affect literacy? Evidence from India," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 529, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    18. Zoch, Gundula & Bächmann, Ann-Christin & Vicari, Basha, 2020. "Care-Arrangements and Parental Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 202035, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    19. Santos, Cezar & Tertilt, Michèle, 2023. "How families matter for understanding economic inequality," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13080, Inter-American Development Bank.
    20. Vani S. Kulkarni & Manoj Pandey & Raghav Gaiha, 2013. "MDGs and gender inequality," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 18813, GDI, The University of Manchester.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    incomes; COVID-19; lockdown; employment; gender; time use; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp13815. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.