The Gendered Effects of Climate Change: Production Shocks and Labor Response in Agriculture

Farzana Afridi, Kanika Mahajan and Nikita Sangwan
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Nikita Sangwan: Indian Statistical Institute

No 14568, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Climate change has increased rainfall uncertainty, leading to greater production risks in agriculture. We examine the gender-differentiated labor impacts of droughts resulting from lower precipitation using unique individual-level panel data for agricultural households in India over half a decade. Accounting for unobserved heterogeneity in individual responses, we find that women's workdays fall by 11% more than men's when a drought occurs, driven by former's lack of diversification to the non-farm sector. Women are less likely to work outside their village and migrate relative to men in response to droughts, and are consequently unable to cope fully with the adverse agricultural productivity shock. Our findings can be explained by social costs emanating from gender norms that constrain women's access to non-farm work opportunities. The results highlight the gendered impact of climate change, potentially exacerbating extant gender gaps in the labor market.

Keywords: labor; climate; drought; agriculture; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J43 J60 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-env, nep-gen, nep-isf and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published as 'The Gendered Effects of Droughts: Production Shocks and Labor Response in Agriculture' in: Labour Economics, 2022, 78, 102227

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