What Drives Female Labour Force Participation? Comparable Micro-level Evidence from Eight Developing and Emerging Economies

We investigate the micro-level determinants of labour force participation of urban married women in eight low- and middle-income economies: Bolivia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Jordan, South Africa, Tanzania, and Vietnam. In order to understand what drives changes and differences in participation rate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of development studies Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 417 - 442
Main Authors Klasen, Stephan, Le, TU THI NGOC, Pieters, Janneke, Santos Silva, Manuel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 04.03.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Fertility
Labor force
Labor force participation
Low income groups
Wives
Women
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Summary:We investigate the micro-level determinants of labour force participation of urban married women in eight low- and middle-income economies: Bolivia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Jordan, South Africa, Tanzania, and Vietnam. In order to understand what drives changes and differences in participation rates since the early 2000s, we build a unified empirical framework that allows for comparative analyses across time and space. We find that the returns to the characteristics of women and their families differ substantially across countries, and this explains most of the between-country differences in participation rates. Overall, the economic, social, and institutional constraints that shape women's labour force participation remain largely country-specific. Nonetheless, rising education levels and declining fertility consistently increased participation rates, while rising household incomes contributed negatively in relatively poorer countries, suggesting that a substantial share of women work out of economic necessity.
ISSN:0022-0388
1743-9140
DOI:10.1080/00220388.2020.1790533