IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp13712.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Gendering Technological Change: Evidence from Agricultural Mechanization

Author

Listed:
  • Afridi, Farzana

    (Indian Statistical Institute)

  • Bishnu, Monisankar

    (Indian Statistical Institute)

  • Mahajan, Kanika

    (Ashoka University)

Abstract

Technological change in production processes with gendered division of labor across tasks, such as agriculture, can have a differential impact on women's and men's labor. Using exogenous variation in the extent of loamy soil, which is more amenable to deep tillage than clayey soil and therefore more likely to see adoption of tractor driven equipment for primary tilling, we show that mechanization has led to significantly greater decline in women's than men's labor on Indian farms. Reduced demand for labor in weeding, a task that requires precision and is thus more often undertaken by women, explains our findings. The estimates suggest that increased mechanized tilling led to a more than 22% fall in women's agricultural labor in India during 1999-2011. Our results highlight the gendered impact of technological change in contexts where there is sex-specific specialization of labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Afridi, Farzana & Bishnu, Monisankar & Mahajan, Kanika, 2020. "Gendering Technological Change: Evidence from Agricultural Mechanization," IZA Discussion Papers 13712, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13712
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp13712.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lori Beaman & Dean Karlan & Bram Thuysbaert & Christopher Udry, 2013. "Profitability of Fertilizer: Experimental Evidence from Female Rice Farmers in Mali," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 381-386, May.
    2. Kanika Mahajan & Bharat Ramaswami, 2017. "Caste, Female Labor Supply, and the Gender Wage Gap in India: Boserup Revisited," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 339-378.
    3. Doss, Cheryl R., 1999. "Twenty-Five Years Of Research On Women Farmers In Africa: Lessons And Implications For Agricultural Research Institutions; With An Annotated Bibliography," Economics Program Papers 23720, CIMMYT: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
    4. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2013. "On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 469-530.
    5. Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1990. "Population Growth and Human Capital Investments: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 38-70, October.
    6. Giuliano, Paola, 2017. "Gender: An Historical Perspective," CEPR Discussion Papers 12183, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Chernozhukov, Victor & Hansen, Christian, 2008. "The reduced form: A simple approach to inference with weak instruments," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 68-71, July.
    8. Eliana Carranza, 2014. "Soil Endowments, Female Labor Force Participation, and the Demographic Deficit of Women in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 197-225, October.
    9. Jeremy Greenwood & Ananth Seshadri & Mehmet Yorukoglu, 2005. "Engines of Liberation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 109-133.
    10. Yoo-Mi Chin, 2012. "Male backlash, bargaining, or exposure reduction?: women’s working status and physical spousal violence in India," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 175-200, January.
    11. Binswanger, Hans, 1986. "Agricultural Mechanization: A Comparative Historical Perspective," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 1(1), pages 27-56, January.
    12. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1996. "Technical Change and Human-Capital Returns and Investments: Evidence from the Green Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 931-953, September.
    13. Paula Bustos & Bruno Caprettini & Jacopo Ponticelli, 2016. "Agricultural Productivity and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(6), pages 1320-1365, June.
    14. David Lagakos & Michael E. Waugh, 2013. "Selection, Agriculture, and Cross-Country Productivity Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 948-980, April.
    15. Jacoby, Hanan G., 1991. "Productivity of men and women and the sexual division of labor in peasant agriculture of the Peruvian Sierra," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1-2), pages 265-287, November.
    16. Emmanuel Skoufias, 1993. "Seasonal Labor Utilization in Agriculture: Theory and Evidence from Agrarian Households in India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 75(1), pages 20-32.
    17. Pingali, Prabhu, 2007. "Agricultural Mechanization: Adoption Patterns and Economic Impact," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 54, pages 2779-2805, Elsevier.
    18. Acemoglu, Daron & Autor, David, 2011. "Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 12, pages 1043-1171, Elsevier.
    19. Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Agricultural Economics," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 1.
    20. Kyle Emerick & Alain de Janvry & Elisabeth Sadoulet & Manzoor H. Dar, 2016. "Technological Innovations, Downside Risk, and the Modernization of Agriculture," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(6), pages 1537-1561, June.
    21. Farzana Afridi & Taryn Dinkelman & Kanika Mahajan, 2018. "Why are fewer married women joining the work force in rural India? A decomposition analysis over two decades," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(3), pages 783-818, July.
    22. Farzana AFRIDI & Monisankar BISHNU & Kanika MAHAJAN, 2024. "What determines women's labor supply? The role of home productivity and social norms," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 90(1), pages 55-87, March.
    23. Nancy Qian, 2008. "Missing Women and the Price of Tea in China: The Effect of Sex-Specific Earnings on Sex Imbalance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 1251-1285.
    24. Brainerd, Elizabeth & Menon, Nidhiya, 2014. "Seasonal effects of water quality: The hidden costs of the Green Revolution to infant and child health in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 49-64.
    25. Quisumbing, Agnes R., 1996. "Male-female differences in agricultural productivity: Methodological issues and empirical evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 1579-1595, October.
    26. Singh, Gajendra, 2015. "Agricultural Mechanisation Development in India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 70(1), pages 1-19.
    27. Bhattarai, Madhusudan & Shekhawat, Ravindra S & Joshi, P K, 2016. "Diffusion of Farm Tractor in India from 1960 to 2012: Patterns and Prospects," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235868, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gupta, Tanu & Negi, Digvijay, 2021. "Daughter Vs. Daughter-in-Law: Kinship Roles and Women’s Time Use in India," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315021, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Ashwini Deshpande & Naila Kabeer, 2021. "Norms that matter: Exploring the distribution of women's work between income generation, expenditure-saving, and unpaid domestic responsibilities in India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-130, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. de Brauw, Alan & Kramer, Berber & Murphy, Mike, 2021. "Migration, labor and women’s empowerment: Evidence from an agricultural value chain in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    4. Rajshri Jayaraman & Bisma Khan, 2023. "Does co-residence with parents-in-law reduce women's employment in India?," Working Papers tecipa-747, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    5. Rajshri Jayaraman & Bisma Khan, 2023. "Does Co-Residence with Parents-In-Law Reduce Women’s Employment in India?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10238, CESifo.
    6. Rajshri Jayaraman & Bisma Khan, 2023. "Does Co-Residence with Parents-In-Law Reduce Women’s Employment in India?," Working Papers 2023-004, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    7. Deshpande, Ashwini & Singh, Jitendra, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed Out or Can’t Get in? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," IZA Discussion Papers 14639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Aparajita Dasgupta & Anahita Karandikar & Devvrat Raghav, 2024. "Road Access, Fertility, and Child Health in Rural India," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 50(1), pages 117-147, March.
    9. Nicholas Li, 2022. "Women's Work in India: Evidence from changes in time use between 1998 and 2019," Working Papers 084, Ryerson University, Department of Economics.
    10. Li, Nicholas, 2023. "Women’s work in India: Evidence from changes in time use between 1998 and 2019," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    11. Ashwini Deshpande & Jitendra Singh, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed out or Can't Get In? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," Working Papers 65, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    12. Pallavi Rajkhowa & Zaneta Kubik, 2021. "Revisiting the relationship between farm mechanization and labour requirement in India," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 487-513, December.
    13. Deshpande, Ashwini & Khanna, Shantanu & Walia, Daksh, 2023. "An Indian Enigma? Labour Market Impacts of the World's Largest Livelihoods Program," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1311, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Farzana Afridi & Monisankar Bishnu & Kanika Mahajan, 2023. "Gender and mechanization: Evidence from Indian agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(1), pages 52-75, January.
    2. Kubitza, Christoph & Dib, Jonida Bou & Kopp, Thomas & Krishna, Vijesh V. & Nuryartono, Nunung & Qaim, Matin & Romero, Miriam & Klasen, Stephan, 2019. "Labor savings in agriculture and inequality at different spatial scales: The expansion of oil palm in Indonesia," EFForTS Discussion Paper Series 26, University of Goettingen, Collaborative Research Centre 990 "EFForTS, Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia)".
    3. Takeshima, Hiroyuki & Liu, Yanyan, 2020. "Smallholder mechanization induced by yield-enhancing biological technologies: Evidence from Nepal and Ghana," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    4. Aryal, Jeetendra Prakash & Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Thapa, Ganesh & Simtowe, Franklin, 2021. "Mechanisation of small-scale farms in South Asia: Empirical evidence derived from farm households survey," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Baranov, Victoria & de Haas, Ralph & Grosjean, Pauline, 2018. "Men. Roots and Consequences of Masculinity Norms," Other publications TiSEM 6fa57f55-71bb-42c4-8cc4-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Yukichi Y. & Mano Yukichi Y. & Takahashi Kazushi & Otsuka Keijiro, 2017. "Contract Farming, Farm Mechanization, and Agricultural Intensification: The Case of Rice Farming in Cote d’Ivoire," Working Papers 157, JICA Research Institute.
    7. Chen, Chaoran, 2020. "Technology adoption, capital deepening, and international productivity differences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    8. Paula Bustos & Juan Manuel Castro Vincenzi & Joan Monras & Jacopo Ponticelli, 2019. "Structural Transformation, Industrial Specialization, and Endogenous Growth," Working Papers wp2019_1906, CEMFI.
    9. Sofia Amaral & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Rudra Sensarma, 2015. "Public Work Programs and Gender-based Violence: The Case of NREGA in India," Discussion Papers 15-09, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    10. Díaz, Juan-José & Saldarriaga, Victor, 2023. "A drop of love? Rainfall shocks and spousal abuse: Evidence from rural Peru," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Kanika Mahajan & Bharat Ramaswami, 2017. "Caste, Female Labor Supply, and the Gender Wage Gap in India: Boserup Revisited," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 339-378.
    12. Ponticelli, Jacopo & Bustos, Paula & Castro-Vincenzi, Juan & Monras, Joan, 2018. "Industrialization without Innovation," CEPR Discussion Papers 13379, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Anke Becker, 2019. "On the Economic Origins of Restrictions on Women's Sexuality," CESifo Working Paper Series 7770, CESifo.
    14. Diva Dhar & Tarun Jain & Seema Jayachandran, 2022. "Reshaping Adolescents' Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 899-927, March.
    15. Huichao Du & Yun Xiao & Liqiu Zhao, 2021. "Education and gender role attitudes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 475-513, April.
    16. Zhang, Xiaobo & Yang, Jin & Reardon, Thomas, 2020. "Mechanization outsourcing clusters and division of labor in Chinese agriculture," IFPRI book chapters, in: An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?, chapter 2, pages 71-96, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Giuliano, Paola, 2017. "Gender: An Historical Perspective," CEPR Discussion Papers 12183, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Neumann, Cora, 2022. "Missing women in Colonial India," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 613, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    19. Victor Gay, 2017. "The Legacy of the Missing Men: The Long-Run Impact of World War I on Female Labor Force Participation," 2017 Papers pga905, Job Market Papers.
    20. Chaoran Chen & Diego Restuccia & Raul Santaeulalia-Llopis, 2022. "The Effects of Land Markets on Resource Allocation and Agricultural Productivity," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 41-54, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    technology; agriculture; specialization of labor; gender; mechanization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J43 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Agricultural Labor Markets
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13712. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.