What explains the stagnation of female labor force participation in urban India ?

Stephan Klasen and Janneke Pieters

No 7222, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Female labor force participation rates in urban India between 1987 and 2011 are surprisingly low and have stagnated since the late 1980s. Despite rising growth, fertility decline, and rising wages and education levels, married women's labor force participation hovered around 18 percent. Analysis of five large cross-sectional micro surveys shows that a combination of supply and demand effects have contributed to this stagnation. The main supply side factors are rising household incomes and husband's education as well as the falling selectivity of highly educated women. On the demand side, the sectors that draw in female workers have expanded least, so that changes in the sectoral structure of employment alone would have actually led to declining participation rates.

Keywords: Primary Education; Labor Markets; Gender and Development; Labor Policies; Population Policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-03-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (172)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... in0urban0India00.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: What Explains the Stagnation of Female Labor Force Participation in Urban India? (2015)
Working Paper: What explains the stagnation of female labor force participation in urban India? (2013)
Working Paper: What Explains the Stagnation of Female Labor Force Participation in Urban India? (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7222

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().