IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/adbewp/0655.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Women’s Mobility and Labor Supply: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Field, Erica

    (Duke University)

  • Vyborny, Kate

    (Duke University)

Abstract

In cities with conservative norms or high crime, female workers may face greater restrictions on their physical mobility. This limits women’s labor market opportunities and the pool of workers that firms can attract. In this study, we experimentally vary access to a transport service in Lahore, Pakistan, to quantify the overall impact of transport to work on men, women, and the differential impact of transport exclusively for women. We show that reducing physical mobility constraints has a large impact on job searching for women, including women who are not searching at baseline. Women’s response is driven by a women-only transport treatment arm, suggesting that safety and social acceptability, rather than simply cost, are key constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Field, Erica & Vyborny, Kate, 2022. "Women’s Mobility and Labor Supply: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 655, Asian Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:adbewp:0655
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.adb.org/publications/womens-mobility-labor-supply-pakistan
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marianne Bertrand & Emir Kamenica & Jessica Pan, 2015. "Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 571-614.
    2. Karthik Muralidharan & Nishith Prakash, 2017. "Cycling to School: Increasing Secondary School Enrollment for Girls in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 321-350, July.
    3. Jacoby, Hanan G. & Mansuri, Ghazala, 2015. "Crossing boundaries: How social hierarchy impedes economic mobility," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 135-154.
    4. Erica Field & Rohini Pande & Natalia Rigol & Simone Schaner & Charity Troyer Moore, 2021. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(7), pages 2342-2375, July.
    5. Leonardo Bursztyn & Alessandra L. González & David Yanagizawa-Drott, 2020. "Misperceived Social Norms: Women Working Outside the Home in Saudi Arabia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 2997-3029, October.
    6. Dana Burde & Leigh L. Linden, 2013. "Bringing Education to Afghan Girls: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Village-Based Schools," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 27-40, July.
    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. Hina Amber & Bezawit Beyene Chichaibelu, 2023. "Narrowing the gender digital divide in Pakistan: Mobile phone ownership and female labor force participation," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1354-1382, August.
    2. Aparajita Dasgupta & Ashokankur Datta, 2023. "Gendered Transport Subsidy and its Short Run Effect on Female Employment: Evidence from Delhi’s Pink Pass Scheme," Working Papers 105, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    3. Coxhead,Ian & Jayasuriya,Sisira & Kurosaki,Takashi, 2023. "Is female labor immobility holding back industrialization in Pakistan?," IDE Discussion Papers 896, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    4. Balasubramanian, Pooja & Ibanez, Marcela & Khan, Sarah & Sahoo, Soham, 2024. "Does women's economic empowerment promote human development in low- and middle-income countries? A meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(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. Siwan Anderson, 2022. "Unbundling female empowerment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1671-1701, November.
    2. Nathan Fiala & Ana Garcia-Hernandez & Kritika Narula & Nishith Prakash, 2022. "Wheels of Change: Transforming Girls’ Lives with Bicycles," Working papers 2022-04, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    3. Fiala, Nathan & Garcia-Hernandez, Ana & Narula, Kritika & Prakash, Nishith, 2022. "Wheels of change: Transforming girls' lives with bicycles," Ruhr Economic Papers 943, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Seema Jayachandran, 2021. "Social Norms as a Barrier to Women’s Employment in Developing Countries," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(3), pages 576-595, September.
    5. Alison Andrew & Sonya Krutikova & Gabriela Smarrelli & Hemlata Verma, 2022. "Gender norms, violence and adolescent girls' trajectories: evidence from a field experiment in India," Economics Series Working Papers 984, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    6. Borker,Girija, 2021. "Safety First : Perceived Risk of Street Harassment and Educational Choices of Women," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9731, The World Bank.
    7. Anders Kjelsrud & Kristin Vikan Sjurgard, 2022. "Public Work and Private Violence," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(9), pages 1791-1806, September.
    8. Carlotta Nani, 2024. "Perceived abilities and gender stereotypes within the household: experimental evidence from Bangladesh," IHEID Working Papers 19-2024, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    9. Avner Seror, 2021. "Social Roles," AMSE Working Papers 2134, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    10. Zenou, Yves & Hahn, Youjin & Hassani-Mahmooei, behrooz & Islam, Asad & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2016. "Do Friends Improve Female Education? The Case of Bangladesh," CEPR Discussion Papers 11615, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Pedro Carneiro & Jishnu Das & Hugo Reis, 2024. "The Value of Private Schools: Evidence from Pakistan," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(5), pages 1301-1318, September.
    12. Moussa P Blimpo & Ousman Gajigo & Todd Pugatch, 2019. "Financial Constraints and Girls’ Secondary Education: Evidence from School Fee Elimination in The Gambia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 33(1), pages 185-208.
    13. Estefanía Galván & Cecilia García-Peñalosa, 2021. "Interactions amongst gender norms: Evidence from US couples," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-15, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    14. Assefa, Thomas W. & Magnan, Nicholas & McCullough, Ellen & McGavock, Tamara, 2022. "Stifled by Stigma? Experimental Effects of Updating Husbands’ Beliefs on Participation in Women’s Household Work," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322470, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Karthik Muralidharan & Nishith Prakash, 2017. "Cycling to School: Increasing Secondary School Enrollment for Girls in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 321-350, July.
    16. Lídia Farré & Cristina Felfe & Libertad González & Patrick Schneider, 2022. "Changing Gender Norms across Generations: Evidence from a Paternity Leave Reform," Working Papers 1310, Barcelona School of Economics.
    17. Gazeaud, Jules & Khan, Nausheen & Mvukiyehe, Eric & Sterck, Olivier, 2023. "With or without him? Experimental evidence on cash grants and gender-sensitive trainings in Tunisia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    18. Christopher Cotton & Ardyn Nordstrom & Jordan Nanowski & Eric Richert, 2020. "Community Campaigns to Improve Attitudes towards Girls' Education Can Increase Math Scores and Enrollment," Working Paper 1426, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    19. Seidel, André, 2023. "A global map of amenities: Public goods, ethnic divisions and decentralization," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    20. Erica Field & Rohini Pande & Natalia Rigol & Simone Schaner & Charity Troyer Moore, 2021. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(7), pages 2342-2375, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    transport; mobility; gender; female labor force participation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • L91 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Transportation: General

    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:ris:adbewp:0655. 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: Orlee Velarde (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eradbph.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.