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Effects of Trade on Female Labor Force Participation

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  • Philip U. Sauré
  • Hosny Zoabi

Abstract

Male and female labor are imperfect substitutes and some sectors are more suitable for female employment than others. Clearly, expansions of those sectors that use female labor intensively must affect aggregate female labor force participation (FLFP). We suggest that FLFP actually drops when trade and international specialization expand sectors that use female labor intensively. This effect arises because expansions of the former sectors come along with contractions of others. The latter contractions, in turn, induce male workers to move to the expanding sectors, driving female workers out of formal employment. Thus, a country that is exporting female labor content is actually substituting male labor for female. Finally, building on U.S.-Mexican trade data, we provide empirical evidence that support our argument.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip U. Sauré & Hosny Zoabi, 2009. "Effects of Trade on Female Labor Force Participation," Working Papers 2009-12, Swiss National Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:snb:snbwpa:2009-12
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    Cited by:

    1. Justina A.V. Fischer, 2015. "Globalized Markets, Globalized Information, and Female Employment: Accounting for Regional Differences in 30 OECD Countries," AIEL Series in Labour Economics, in: Chiara Mussida & Francesco Pastore (ed.), Geographical Labor Market Imbalances. Recent Explanations and Cures, edition 1, chapter 13, pages Universit, AIEL - Associazione Italiana Economisti del Lavoro.
    2. Audi, Marc & Ali, Amjad, 2016. "Gender Gap and Trade Liberalization: An Analysis of some selected SAARC countries," MPRA Paper 83520, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Silvio Contessi & Francesca de Nicola & Li Li, 2014. "International trade, female labor and entrepreneurship in MENA countries," Chapters, in: Carlo Altomonte & Massimiliano Ferrara (ed.), The Economic and Political Aftermath of the Arab Spring, chapter 4, pages 106-140, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Veysel Avsar, 2014. "Import Protection And Female Labor," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 59(05), pages 1-8.
    5. Sauré, Philip & Zoabi, Hosny, 2014. "International trade, the gender wage gap and female labor force participation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 17-33.
    6. Lopez-Acevedo, Gladys & Robertson, Raymond, 2012. "The Promise and Peril of Post-MFA Apparel Production," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 84, pages 1-4, May.
    7. Isis Gaddis & Janneke Pieters, 2017. "The Gendered Labor Market Impacts of Trade Liberalization: Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(2), pages 457-490.
    8. Mizuki Komura & Hikaru Ogawa, 2019. "Capital market integration and gender inequality," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 1387-1413, August.
    9. Beyza Ural Marchand & Ray Rees & Raymond Riezman, 2011. "Globalization, Gender and Development: The Effect of Parental Labor Supply on Child Schooling," CESifo Working Paper Series 3341, CESifo.
    10. Beyza Ural Marchand & Ray Rees & Raymond Riezman, 2013. "The effect of parental labor supply on child schooling: evidence from trade liberalization in India," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 151-173, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade; Female Labor Force Participation; Fertility; Technological Change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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