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COVID-19 lockdown, family migration and unemployment in a gendered society

Author

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  • Mahata, Sushobhan
  • Khan, Rohan Kanti
  • Chaudhuri, Sarbajit
  • Nag, Ranjanendra Narayan

Abstract

COVID-19 has posed severe challenges not only to researchers in the field of medicines and natural sciences but also to policymakers. Almost all nations of the world lockdown have been chosen as an immediate response to this pandemic crisis. The labour market in developing economies continues to be gendered with gender-based wage differentials besides occupational segregation, women who are the marginalized section in the society, bear the brunt of the unprecedented COVID-19 lockdown. Against this backdrop, a multi-sectoral general equilibrium model has been constructed with heterogeneity in migration (with and without family migration) that has been derived from the intra-household bargaining problem amongst unskilled families to analyse the gendered effect of the pandemic. Lockdown has been conceptualized as a restriction on the physical gathering of labour in the contact-intensive sectors. The results of the paper reflect internal contradictions of developing economies that have a conditional-conditioning relationship with an archaic structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Mahata, Sushobhan & Khan, Rohan Kanti & Chaudhuri, Sarbajit & Nag, Ranjanendra Narayan, 2022. "COVID-19 lockdown, family migration and unemployment in a gendered society," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 218-236.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reecon:v:76:y:2022:i:3:p:218-236
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rie.2022.07.010
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    JEL classification:

    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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