IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dls/wpaper/0181.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Female Labor Force Participation in Latin America: Evidence of Deceleration

Author

Listed:
  • Leonardo Gasparini

    (CEDLAS-UNLP and CONICET)

  • Mariana Marchionni

    (CEDLAS-UNLP and CONICET)

  • Nicolás Badaracco

    (CEDLAS-UNLP)

  • Joaquín Serrano

    (CEDLAS-UNLP and CONICET)

Abstract

This paper documents changes in female labor force participation (LFP) in Latin America exploiting a large database of microdata from household surveys of 15 countries in the period 1992-2012. We find evidence for a significant deceleration in the rate of increase of female LFP in the 2000s, breaking the marked increasing pattern that characterized the region for at least 50 years. The paper documents and characterizes this fact and examines various factors that could be driving the deceleration. Through a set of simple decompositions the paper helps to disentangle whether the patterns in female LFP are mainly accounted for by changes in the distribution of some direct determinants of the labor supply decision (e.g. education), or instead they are chiefly the consequence of some more profound transformation in behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Gasparini & Mariana Marchionni & Nicolás Badaracco & Joaquín Serrano, 2015. "Female Labor Force Participation in Latin America: Evidence of Deceleration," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0181, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    • Handle: RePEc:dls:wpaper:0181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/archivos_upload/doc_cedlas181.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ximena Pena & Raquel Bernal & Diego Amador, 2013. "The rise in female participation in Colombia: Fertility, marital status or education?," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 31(71), pages 54-63, June.
    2. Claudia Goldin, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 1-21, May.
    3. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2013. "Female Labor Supply: Why Is the United States Falling Behind?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 251-256, May.
    4. Claudia Goldin, 2014. "A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(4), pages 1091-1119, April.
    5. Espino, Alma, 2005. "Un marco de análisis para el fomento de las políticas de desarrollo productivo con enfoque de género," Asuntos de Género 5798, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    6. Goldin, Claudia, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women’s Employment, Education, and Family," Scholarly Articles 2943933, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Female Labor Force Participation in Latin America: Evidence of Deceleration
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2015-06-10 17:43:12

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Mariana Viollaz & Mauricio Salazar-Saenz & Luca Flabbim & Monserrat Bustelo & Mariano Bosch, 2022. "The COVID-19 Pandemic in Latin American and Caribbean countries: The Labor Supply Impact by Gender," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0296, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    2. Gasparini, Leonardo & Arcidiácono, Malena & Carella, Laura & Puig, Jorge & Gluzmann, Pablo & Brassiolo, Pablo, 2015. "El empleo público en América Latina. Evidencia de las encuestas de hogares," El Trimestre Económico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, vol. 0(328), pages .749-784, octubre-d.
    3. Serrano, Joaquín & Gasparini, Leonardo & Marchionni, Mariana & Glüzmann, Pablo, 2019. "Economic cycle and deceleration of female labor force participation in Latin America," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 53(1), pages 1-13.
    4. Rita K. Almeida & Mariana Viollaz, 2023. "Women in paid employment: a role for public policies and social norms in Guatemala," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 252-279, July.
    5. Galperin, Hernan & Arcidiacono, Malena, 2021. "Employment and the gender digital divide in Latin America: A decomposition analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7).
    6. Javier Alejo & Victor Funes, 2019. "Ecuaciones Salariales de Parejas bajo Selección Muestral Bivariada. Una Aplicación al Caso Argentino," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0246, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

    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. Masao Fukui & Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2023. "Women, Wealth Effects, and Slow Recoveries," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 269-313, January.
    2. Ana María Iregui-Bohórquez & Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo & Ana María Tribín-Uribe, 2020. "The path to gender equality in Colombia: Are we there yet?," Borradores de Economia 1131, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    3. Benjamin Bennett & Isil Erel & Léa H. Stern & Zexi Wang, 2020. "Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 27788, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Dilmaghani, Maryam, 2021. "The gender gap in competitive chess across countries: Commanding queens in command economies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 425-441.
    5. Barigozzi, Francesca & Cremer, Helmuth & Roeder, Kerstin, 2020. "Having it all, for all: Child-care subsidies and income distribution reconciled," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 188-211.
    6. Claudia Olivetti & Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2020. "Mothers, Peers, and Gender-Role Identity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 266-301.
    7. Borghorst, Malte & Mulalic, Ismir & van Ommeren, Jos, 2021. "Commuting, Children and the Gender Wage Gap," Working Papers 15-2021, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    8. Warn N. Lekfuangfu & Grace Lordan, 2023. "Documenting occupational sorting by gender in the UK across three cohorts: does a grand convergence rely on societal movements?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(5), pages 2215-2256, May.
    9. Estefanía Galván & Cecilia García-Peñalosa, 2021. "Interactions amongst gender norms: Evidence from US couples," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-15, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    10. Victoria Costoya & Lucía Echeverría & María Edo & Ana Rocha & Agustina Thailinger, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 in the allocation of time within couples. Evidence for Argentina," Working Papers 145, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Aug 2020.
    11. LIU Xing & SIERMINSKA Eva, 2014. "Evaluating the effect of beauty on labor market outcomes: A review of the literature," LISER Working Paper Series 2014-11, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    12. Lucifora, Claudio & Vigani, Daria, 2016. "What If Your Boss Is a Woman? Work Organization, Work-Life Balance and Gender Discrimination at the Workplace," IZA Discussion Papers 9737, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Popov, Alexander & Zaharia, Sonia, 2019. "Credit market competition and the gender gap in labor force participation: Evidence from local markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 25-59.
    14. Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna & Terskaya, Anastasia, 2018. "Independent Thinking and Hard Working, or Caring and Well Behaved? Short- and Long-Term Impacts of Gender Identity Norms," IZA Discussion Papers 11694, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. 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.
    16. Cremer, Helmuth & Barigozzi, Francesca & Monfardini, Chiara, 2019. "The gender gap in informal child care: theory and some evidence from Italy," CEPR Discussion Papers 13782, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Tien Manh Vu & Hiroyuki Yamada, 2024. "Impacts of capital intensity on family formation and gender equality in Vietnam," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2024-001, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    18. Petrongolo, Barbara & Ronchi, Maddalena, 2020. "Gender gaps and the structure of local labor markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    19. Riccardo Leoncini & Mariele Macaluso & Annalivia Polselli, 2023. "Gender Segregation: Analysis across Sectoral-Dominance in the UK Labour Market," Papers 2303.04539, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    20. Barigozzi, Francesca & Cremer, Helmuth & Roeder, Kerstin, 2018. "Women's career choices, social norms and child care policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 162-173.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

    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:dls:wpaper:0181. 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: Ana Pacheco (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/funlpar.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.