Unpacking the Link between Service Sector and Female Employment: Cross-Country Evidence

Sena Coskun and Gonul Sengul

No 20102, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: The surge in women's participation in the workforce has been a defining feature of advanced economies in recent decades. This paper explores cross-country variations in the relationship between service sector expansion and female employment. We estimate the elasticity of the female employment with respect to the services employment and uncover substantial differences across countries in how strongly the female share of working hours responds to service sector expansion. Our findings show that this elasticity is higher in countries experiencing stronger structural transformation and greater female employment intensity in business services. Furthermore, greater female employment intensity in business services is associated with a larger food and accommodation sector. These findings suggest that countries undergoing greater reallocation from industry to services experienced stronger increase in female employment as their expanding business service generated additional increase in food and accommodation sector, thereby pulling women more strongly to market work.

Keywords: Female employment; structural transformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J21 J22 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-04
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