Economic Development and Women's Labor Force Participation in India
Description
India has experienced sustained economic growth over the past two decades, alongside a persistent decline in women’s labor force participation rates (LFPR). This paper examines the relationship between economic development and women’s labor supply using state-level data spanning the period 1983–84 to 2011–12. While prior studies often suggest a U-shaped relationship between economic development and women’s labor force participation, our findings indicate that, at the state level, there is no systematic U-shaped relationship between per capita income and women’s LFPR in India. Instead, our analysis highlights the importance of the structure of economic growth. We find that it is not overall growth per se, but the composition of growth across sectors that significantly influences women’s participation in the workforce. Furthermore, the results suggest that aggregate changes in women’s labor force participation are driven primarily by shifts in the workforce across sectors, rather than changes in female participation rates within individual sectors.
Copyright Date
January 2013
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Keywords
Economics, Women's labor force participation, U-shaped relationship, India, Economic development, Value added, Decomposition
Conference
XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, 26-31 August, 2013, Busan, South Korea
