Cultural norms, economic incentives and women's labour market behaviour: Empirical insights from Bangladesh

James Heinz, Naila Kabeer and Simeen Mahmud

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper sets out to explore a seeming puzzle in the context of Bangladesh. There is a considerable body of evidence from the country pointing to the positive impact of paid work on women’s position within family and community. Yet, according to official statistics, not only has women’s labour force participation risen very slowly over the years, but also a sizeable majority of women in the labour force are in unpaid family labour. We draw on an original survey of over 5000 women from eight different districts in Bangladesh to explore some of the factors that lead to women’s selection into the labour force, and into different categories of labour market activity, with a view to gaining a better understanding of the combination of cultural norms and economic considerations that explain these findings.

JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-11-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Oxford Development Studies, 12, November, 2017. ISSN: 1360-0818

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/84316/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:84316

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().