Can participation in global value chains improve female labor force participation? A firm-level empirical investigation

Sasidaran Gopalan (), Ketan Reddy () and Subash Sasidharan ()
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Sasidaran Gopalan: National University of Singapore
Ketan Reddy: Indian Institute of Management Raipur
Subash Sasidharan: Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), 2025, vol. 161, issue 2, No 6, 634 pages

Abstract: Abstract The potential impact of global value chains (GVCs) on gender outcomes in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) remains an important but relatively understudied topic. Using rich firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys for a panel of 32 EMDEs from 2006 to 2020, we empirically tackle the following question: How is GVC participation by firms associated with female labor force participation? After employing a propensity score matching estimator to account for self-selection bias and using an instrumental variable estimator to address simultaneity bias, our findings highlight that a firm participating in a GVC is 3 to 7% more likely to employ female workers. We also find that within the sample of firms that provide on-the-job training to its workers, GVC firms are nearly 3% more likely to employ female workers compared to other firms. Finally, our results also establish that the positive association between GVC integration and female employment is more prominent in labor-intensive industries.

Keywords: Global value chains; Trade integration; Female labor force participation; Gender inequality; Sustainable development goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F1 F14 F15 F16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10290-024-00572-2

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