Gender, Work and Structural Transformation
Type
conference contribution
Date Issued
2022-12-15
Author(s)
Abstract
We harmonize labor force, household and time use surveys from over 100 countries to build two new data sets, the Harmonized World Labor Force and Time Use Surveys. We use these to document patterns of market work, household production and sector of work across the development spectrum for different demographic groups. We show that (1) structural change out of agriculture is driven by the movement of entire households, and not just individuals, indicating that understanding it requires a household perspective on labor supply and sectoral choice. (2) Patterns of market work versus household production differ significantly by gender and marital status, with particularly low market relative to household production by married urban women in low income countries and married women in middle income countries. (3) Female employment rates in a country are related to male choices of sector. To understand the economic forces behind these facts, we write down a two sector model with home production and heterogeneous households that differ by marital status and sex. We use the model to transparently infer determinants of market work and household production by marital status, sex, and sector. This reveals that low market work of urban married women in low income countries reflects particularly high disutility of market work for this group, with smaller roles for relative wages and household production requirements. Model simulations suggest that reducing this disutility to that of rural married women would reduce agricultural employment and change the population composition of cities. Hence, barriers to female urban employment can hold back structural change out of agriculture.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SEPS - Economic Policy
Event Title
RIDGE Macro and Development Workshop
Event Location
Bogota, Colombia
Event Date
14-15 December 2022
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
268659