Unpacking the COVID‐19 Gender Employment Gap Among Young People in the Global South

Douglas Scott, Richard Freund, Marta Favara, Catherine Porter and Alan Sánchez

Review of Development Economics, 2025, vol. 29, issue 4, 2693-2705

Abstract: We provide new evidence on the employment gap between young men and women in three low‐ and middle‐income countries during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. We estimate a year‐end increase of 17–18 percentage points in Peru and India (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), and 9.5 percentage points in Vietnam. A mediation approach is used to establish whether—and to what extent—commonly suggested mechanisms are responsible for the change in labour market composition during 2020. We find that new or increased caring responsibilities explain between 16.5% and 21.1% of the widening employment gap. However, we find little evidence that a slower female recovery can be explained by differences in the probability of contact‐intensive employment or the unequal distribution of caring responsibilities before the pandemic. These results have implications for policy responses in the event of similar outbreaks in the future.

Date: 2025
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