Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries

Titan Alon (), Matthias Doepke, Kristina Manysheva () and Michele Tertilt

CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series from University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany

Abstract: In many high-income economies, the recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented declines in women’s employment. We examine how the forces that underlie this observation play out in developing countries, with a specific focus on Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. A force affecting high- and low-income countries alike are increased childcare needs during school closures; in Nigeria, mothers of school-age children experience the largest declines in employment during the pandemic, just as in high-income countries. A key difference is the role of the sectoral distribution of employment: whereas in high-income economies reduced employment in contact-intensive services had a large impact on women, this sector plays a minor role in low-income countries. Another difference is that women’s employment rebounded much more quickly in low-income countries. We conjecture that large income losses without offsetting government transfers drive up labor supply in low-income countries during the recovery.

Keywords: Covid-19; Pandemics; Women's Labor Supply; Gender Equality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E3 J2 J7 O1 R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19
Date: 2022-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Journal Article: Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries (2022)
Working Paper: Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries (2022)
Working Paper: Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2022_332

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