The Causes and Consequences of Increased Female Education and Labor Force Participation in Developing Countries
Summary (2 min read)
Introduction
- Two important recent trends in most developing countries have are the rise in female labor force participation and the closing of gender gaps in school enrollment.
- This article begins by exploring the causes of the increases in female education, which include greater job availability and policy interventions that have promoted girls’ education.
- The article then explores the causes of increased female employment, which include a sectoral shift from “brawn-based” industries to services, as well as policies that have increased girls’ education.
- The article also discusses the effects of these increases in female education and labor supply, particularly for the well-being of women.
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- In addition to the role of greater job availability, the authors also discuss policy interventions that have promoted girls’ education.
- Low-income countries are on the downward-sloping portion of the empirically-estimated U-shaped curve, which would suggest that their female employment rate would be declining as their economies grow.
- In addition to increased labor supply, there is considerable evidence that female education delays fertility and leads to healthier children once a woman has them.
- Research that shows that job availability increases women’s bargaining power, even if they do not work themselves.
2. Determinants of female education and labor supply
- There is a pronounced male bias in educational attainment at low levels of economic development, which is absent among richer societies.
- While there are also some potential channels through which female employment might instead decrease with development -- as discussed in the next section -- the authors also show female employment has indeed risen in most countries over the past 20 years.
- There are also other channels besides female employment that could be driving the rise in girls’ education that accompanies economic development.
- “Developing” or “low-income” countries are, by and large, on the decreasing part of the curve.
- In addition, there are many policies and interventions aimed at encouraging female employment.
3. Consequences of increased female education and labor supply
- The authors first examine the relationship between women’s education and fertility, children’s health, and children’s education.
- These job opportunities also presumably increase women’s outside options, and the authors accordingly present evidence that women’s bargaining power and investments in children indeed increase.
- Potential psychological mechanisms also yield theoretically ambiguous predictions.
- Psychological backlash – men feel threatened and lash out when their women gain economic independence – could increase violence when women begin working (Gelles, 1972), whereas increased total household income from women’s wage can reduce economic stress, which tends to lead to violence (Ellsberg et al., 1999; Martin et al., 1999).
4. Conclusion
- The authors have documented two trends in developing countries over the past thirty years: rising female education levels and rising female labor force participation.
- Banerjee, Abhijit, Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster, and Cynthia Kinnan.
- Güneş, Pınar M. “The Role of Maternal Education in Child Health: Evidence from a Compulsory Schooling Law.” Economics of Education Review 47 (2015): 1–16. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011.
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...Thomas (1990) points out that women’s education displays a stronger correlation with daughters’ health than sons’, consistent with a relationship between women’s education and bargaining power and mothers favoring daughters more or disfavoring them less than fathers do....
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...One channel through which it could promote gender equality is by increasing competitive pressure on firms and, thus, driving out “taste‐based discrimination” (Becker, 1957)....
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"The Causes and Consequences of Incr..." refers background in this paper
...Thomas (1990) points out that women’s education displays a stronger correlation with daughters’ health than sons’, consistent with a relationship between women’s education and bargaining power and mothers favoring daughters more or disfavoring them less than fathers do....
[...]
...Prominent programs such as Oportunidades in Mexico pay families a larger amount to keep their daughters in school than their sons, under the view that a larger amount is needed to induce them to educate a daughter than a son, and some CCTs only target girls (Schultz, 2004)....
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...In addition, quotas that increased female representation in elected positions in India led to more education for girls, presumably by raising girls’ own aspirations and their parents’ aspirations for them (Beaman et al., 2012). Policies to ban or discourage early marriage of girls might also increase girls’ schooling by decreasing the opportunity cost of schooling; Field and Ambrus (2008) present evidence from Bangladesh consistent with such a channel....
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...In addition, quotas that increased female representation in elected positions in India led to more education for girls, presumably by raising girls’ own aspirations and their parents’ aspirations for them (Beaman et al., 2012)....
[...]