Can globalisation promote female labour force participation?

Harpal Sangha and Robert Riegler

International Journal of Development Issues, 2020, vol. 19, issue 3, 303-322

Abstract: Purpose - This study aims to analyse whether globalisation, i.e. informational and economic globalisation, promoted or impeded female labour force participation (FLFP) in South Asia. Design/methodology/approach - The KOF Globalisation Index is used alongside a fixed effect panel data Discroll–Kraay estimator to control for unobserved factors and achieve robust standard errors. The sample covers all South Asian countries for the period 1999–2015. Findings - Globalisation does not advocate the “feminisation of employment”; in fact, the impact is negative. This is driven by the economic dimension of globalisation, particularly for younger women. However, this impact is mitigated by informational globalisation that affects FLFP positively, especially for women aged 35 years and older. Practical implications - Without support of the right governmental policies, there is a danger of globalisation creating new obstacles for women to enter the labour market. Originality/value - This paper adds to the existing literature by using the more comprehensive KOF globalisation measure to identify the overall effect of globalisation on FLFP in South Asia, being the first study to analyse the impact of informational alongside economic globalisation, and investigating whether globalisation affects the labour force participation rate of various female age cohorts differently.

Keywords: Globalisation; South Asia; Panel data; Female labour force participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:eme:ijdipp:ijdi-07-2019-0135

DOI: 10.1108/IJDI-07-2019-0135

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Development Issues is currently edited by Dr Dilip Dutta

More articles in International Journal of Development Issues from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().