Publication: Trade and Female Labor Participation: Stylized Facts Using a Global Dataset
Date
2019-12
ISSN
Published
2019-12
Author(s)
Abstract
Using a cross-section of more than
29,000 manufacturing firms in 64 developing and emerging
countries from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys,
this paper assesses whether trading firms have a female
labor share premium relative to non-trading firms. It
focuses on four types of trading firms: exporters,
importers, global value chain participants, and foreign
firms. The study finds a female labor share premium for all
four trading types, controlling for firm output, capital
intensity, total factor productivity, and fixed effects. The
findings also hold after controlling for differences in
relative wages between men and women and excluding
traditional export sectors (apparel and electronics) from
the sample. The female labor share premium is much higher
for production workers compared with non-production workers,
implying that women specialize in low-skill production. In
line with these findings, the study finds that the female
labor share premium for exporters and global value chain
participants is highest in low-tech sectors. And female
ownership and management expand the female labor share
premium for trading firms. Finally, the results suggest that
although average wage rates are lower for firms with higher
female labor shares, this negative correlation is smaller
for trading firms.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Rocha, Nadia; Winkler, Deborah. 2019. Trade and Female Labor Participation: Stylized Facts Using a Global Dataset. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9098. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33106 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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