When Women's Work Disappears: Marriage and Fertility Decisions in Peru

Hani Mansour (), Pamela Medina () and Andrea Velasquez
Additional contact information
Hani Mansour: University of Colorado Denver
Pamela Medina: University of Toronto

No 16364, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper studies the gendered labor market and demographic effects of trade liberalization in Peru. To identify these effects, we use variation in the exposure of local labor markets to import competition from China based on their baseline industrial composition. On average, the increase in Chinese imports during 1998-2008 led to a persistent decline in the employment share of low-educated female workers but had smaller and transitory effects on the employment of low-educated men. In contrast to the predictions of Becker's model of household specialization, we find that the increase in import competition during this period increased the share of single low-educated people and decreased their marriage rates. There is little evidence that import competition affected fertility decisions. The results highlight the role of gains from joint consumption in marriage formation.

Keywords: marriage formation; import competition; fertility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J13 J16 J23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2023-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-des, nep-dev, nep-int and nep-lab
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Published - published in: Journal of Globalization and Development, 2023, 14 (2), 385-412.

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Related works:
Journal Article: When Women’s Work Disappears: Marriage and Fertility Decisions in Peru (2023)
Working Paper: When Women’s Work Disappears: Marriage and Fertility Decisions in Peru (2023)
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