This paper explores the role of social networks in determining labor market participation and salaried employment of Bolivian women and men. We define social networks as the share of neighbors that have jobs, and find that networks encourage women’s labor force participation and that they are effective channels through which women and men find salaried employment. Furthermore, men and urban women use same sex contacts to find salaried work. Our findings suggest that social networks have positive externalities that may reduce gender disparities in Bolivia’s labor market: educating women, for instance, has a direct individual effect—labor market participation in better jobs—and an indirect effect by enlarging the female social network.
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Paper provided by University of Chile, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
wp251.
Find related papers by JEL classification: J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination O18 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Social Norms and Social Capital; Social Networks Economic Anthropology
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