The Relationship between Female Labor Force Participation and Violent Conflicts in South Asia
This paper explores the link between the prevalence of violent conflicts and extremely low female labor force participation rates in South Asia. The Labor Force Surveys from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan are merged with the Global Terr...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/151821585229322211/The-Relationship-between-Female-Labor-Force-Participation-and-Violent-Conflicts-in-South-Asia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33517 |
| Summary: | This paper explores the link between the
prevalence of violent conflicts and extremely low female
labor force participation rates in South Asia. The Labor
Force Surveys from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and
Pakistan are merged with the Global Terrorism Database to
estimate the relationship between terrorist attacks and
female labor supply. Geographical data on exposure to
violence are used to compare administrative units exposed to
attacks with those not exposed. The analysis finds that one
additional attack reduces female labor force participation
rates by about 0.008 percentage point, on average. Violence
has less impact on male labor participation, thus widening
the gender labor participation gap. The paper tests the
added -- worker effect theory -- which posits that violence
might increase female labor force participation as women try
to make up for lost household income—and finds mixed
evidence: greater prevalence of attacks may encourage
married women to work more hours, but when the environment
gets more risky, all women work fewer hours. The paper also
finds that violence decreases female labor participation
less where it was already higher and has a progressively
greater impact on lowering female labor participation where
the number of attacks is higher. |
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