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

Robert Garlick, Erica Field () and Kate Vyborny ()
Additional contact information
Erica Field: Duke University
Kate Vyborny: World Bank

No 17883, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study whether commuting barriers constrain women’s labor supply in urban Pakistan. We randomize offers of gender-segregated or mixed-gender commuting services at varying prices. Women-only transport more than doubles job application rates, while mixed-gender transport has minimal effects on men’s and women’s application rates. Women value the women-only service more than large price discounts for the mixed-gender service. Results are similar for baseline labor force participants and non-participants, suggesting there are many “latent jobseekers” close to the margin of participation. These findings highlight the importance of safety and propriety concerns in women’s labor decisions.

Keywords: gender; mobility; transport; female labor force participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J22 J28 L91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-04
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp17883.pdf (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:iza:izadps:dp17883

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().