Level the Playing Field to Bolster the Boardroom: Sports as a Springboard for Women's Labor Force Advancement in Asia

We promote women's participation in sports as part of a solution to better integrate women into the labor force of Asian economies. Women in Asia lag other regions in terms of labor force participation and membership in corporate leadership bodies; this is particularly acute in East Asia. Involvement in sport has been found to be associated with long‐term economic benefits for women internationally, including enhanced returns to education and labor outcomes. We propose a number of sports program‐related policies for Asian countries to consider in order to better integrate women into education, society, labor, and corporate boardrooms.     

Microfinance and Female Group Action in Bangladesh

This paper provides evidence that participation in microfinance programs may increase the likelihood of female group action against domestic violence and spousal abandonment. Although female empowerment has been an explicit target of many microfinance programs, the literature remains conflicted regarding the magnitude and direction of impact. Using multiple estimation methods with data from Bangladesh, I find that women from villages with microfinance programs are substantially more likely than women from non‐program villages to have taken group action by publicly protesting when they observed a woman being beaten, abandoned or divorced. Taking advantage of eligibility requirements for program participation, I further show that women from program villages who are eligible to participate are substantially more likely than non‐eligible women from the same village to have taken group action, which suggests that these effects are in fact related to the microfinance programs themselves.     

CAN GREATER ATTENTION TO WOMEN'S RIGHTS HELP ADDRESS INCOME INEQUALITY?

We investigate the relationship between women's economic, social, and political rights with the level of income inequality. We use dynamic panel estimation to check our hypothesis that that strong rights for women translate into higher participation in economic productive activities, improve income and education and support for future generations, thus reducing the overall income inequality in the economy. We further look at how a country's overall economic performance and the status of women's education alter the relationship. The relationship is strengthened if countries are either in the higher‐income spectrum or have higher levels of female educational attainment. (JEL O1, I00, H00)     

Political reservation for women and delivery of public works program

We examine the impact of political reservations for women to analyze the effectiveness of female leaders in executing public works under NREGA, India's largest public works program. The 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution mandated that one third of Panchayat seats be randomly assigned to women. Using detailed data on Panchayat elections, employment, and public works expenditure for nine districts in Uttar Pradesh, we find female Panchayat leaders significantly increase the demand for work under NREGA. We also find that women leaders take up projects that directly benefit women, such as water control and harvesting. Finally, we find no difference between male and female leaders in generating employment or efficiently implementing public works under NREGA.     

Benefit-induced female sole parenthood in Australia, 1973-85

The supporting mothers' benefit, introduced into Australia's Social Security Act in 1973, made nonwidowed single mothers eligible for direct Commonwealth transfer payments after a 6 month waiting period from date of separation or birth. The number of sole parent beneficiaries reached 176,730 by 1986, with an annual outlay of over US$1.3 billion. In essence, the supporting parents' benefits program legitimizes and facilitates pursuing a career as a single parent. Econometric estimates of the effects of economic and program-related variables on the benefits participation rates of Australian women during the 1973-86 period suggest that the program has had a substantial effect on several margins of individual choice. The outcome for the individual depends on economic, preference, and demographic variables for individuals, their potential or actual spouses, grandparents, and the benefits and eligibility characteristics of the government's parenting support system. In specifying a female sole parent supply function, the appropriate dependent variable is the female beneficiary participation rate--the number of supporting mother beneficiaries as a percentage of the population aged 15 years and over. Time series analysis suggests that, while the eligible population of lone females heading income units was growing before the 1973 introduction of the benefit scheme, there was also a substantial rise in this eligible population after 1973. However, this rise was less than the rise in female supporting parent beneficiaries between 1974-84. It appears that the female beneficiary rate has increased both because the eligible population of lone females heading income units increased in total and as a proportion of the female population and because of an increase in the benefit participation of those eligible. The data further provide evidence of relative wage and discouraged worker effects; coefficients of the weekly real value of benefits and supplementary assistance relative to female wages and the lagged female unemployment rate are positive.     

Some preliminary evidence of the impact of the 2008–2009 financial crisis on women

Beginning in late 2007 and into 2008, a financial crisis originating in the United States spread throughout the world. This article seeks to present preliminary evidence of the impact of this crisis on female labour force participation and the proportion of females working in nonagricultural sectors. A panel data set involving 171 countries is utilized, and the results indicate that the financial crisis led to increases in female labour force participation as well as the proportion of females working in the nonagricultural sector. There are differences in impact for countries of various income levels (low, middle and high). In addition, female political power has also led to increases in the economic participation of females.     

Women and Budget Deficits*

If women have different economic preferences than men, then female economic and political empowerment is likely to change economic policy, and in turn perhaps macroeconomic outcomes. In this paper, we narrow the focus to fiscal policy, and we investigate whether female enfranchisement affects government budget deficits. In a difference‐in‐differences regression for Swiss cantonal panel data, we find that the inclusion of women in the electorate has reduced deficits by a statistically significant amount.     

The evolution of female labour force participation in urban China

Starting from the late 1980s, despite rapid economic growth, female labour force participation in urban China has shown a general declining trend. Using repeated cross‐sections from the Chinese Household Income Project Series (CHIP), this paper attempts to systematically relate the decrease in the labour force participation of married women to the socio‐economic changes happening in urban China during the same period of time. Adopting both linear and nonlinear decomposition techniques, the results indicate that the changes in married women's labour force participation during the periods 1995–2002 and 2007–2013 can be explained by the concurrent changes in the distribution of socio‐economic variables, while the changes during the periods 1988–1995 and 2002–2007 are mostly driven by the leftward shift of married women's participation function.     

Globalisation and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Labour Market in India

This paper examines quantitative and qualitative dimensions of employment issues in India from gender lens. Inequality in quantitative aspects have been analysed gender gap in work participation, composition and structure of employment. The study finds that female work participation in India has declined sharply despite faster economic growth and improvement in female literacy outcomes. The magnitude of decline is sharper in case of illiterate, women from less privileged class and rural backgrounds. Similarly, even after two decades of economic reform, female workers are highly concentrated in low productive, less remunerative and unpaid family labour category of self employment activities. Considering the qualitative dimension of jobs, the paper finds that the condition of female workers are more vulnerable as they are highly concentrated in informal sector and informal jobs with no employment security, no social security, and are being paid relatively lower wages compared to male workers in most of the sub-sector. The paper argues for an urgent policy intervention to ensure access to decent jobs and to provide protection to these vulnerably placed women workers.

     

Against the Wind: Labor Force Participation of Women and Economic Instability in Iran

In the last three decades, Iranian women's educational attainment has continuously increased while their fertility rate has fallen rapidly. Yet in spite of these developments, which in many countries have a positive effect on women's labor force participation, female labor force participation (FLFP) rates have remained at low levels. This paper argues that despite its overall static trend, FLFP of some Iranian women responded to economic pressures induced by macroeconomic instabilities. Looking at the Iranian economic crisis of 1994–5, the study shows that, controlling for individual fixed effects, married women in rural areas and never-married women in urban areas increased their participation rate by as much as 38 percent. No change in hours worked was found for any group of women. The differences in responses and their underlying reasons have policy implications for many developing countries.     

Gender quotas and the selection of local politicians: Evidence from French municipal elections

Using data on the universe of elected politicians in French municipalities, this paper studies the impact of a gender quota law on the political representation of women and on the composition of municipal councils. The empirical strategy, a Difference-in-Discontinuities design, takes advantage of the fact that the policy applies to cities above a population threshold, and that this threshold has been modified over time. I find that the quota policy has a substantial impact on the share of female candidates and elected politicians, but fails to promote female mayors and list leaders, even in cities that have been exposed to the policy for 13 years. Women do not reach leadership positions because they are more likely to resign than male politicians. This higher propensity of women to leave politics is correlated with local gender norms concerning the place of women in society, and also varies with individual characteristics such as age and professional background. In a second part, I show that quotas have little effect on the composition of municipal councils in terms of socio-economic background, age, and political experience.     

Return migration and the transfer of gender norms: Evidence from the Middle East

Does international return migration transfer gender norms? Focusing on Jordan, an Arab country where gender inequality and emigration rates are high, this paper exploits unique data in which detailed information on female empowerment allows us to construct several measures of social norms in Jordan on the role of women, female freedom of mobility, and female decision-making power. Controlling for both emigration and return migration selections, we find that women with a returnee family member are more likely to bear traditional gender norms than women in households with no migration experience. Further analysis shows that results are driven by returnees from more conservative Arab countries, suggesting a transfer of conservative norms from destinations with highly traditional gender roles. We also show the implications of our results beyond perceptions for several economic and development outcomes, such as female labour force participation, education and fertility.     

CHINA'S RESISTANCE TO ECONOMIC REFORMS

After 10 years of institutional and structural change, expanded economic activity, and subsequent economic difficulties, China adopted an austerity program in 1988. Underlying the ostensible economic reasons for the austerity program, however, was growing political resistance to economic reforms among Communist party members.
This paper puts forth two explanations. One is that the leadership misunderstands the market system, and this leads to errors in economic policy. The second explanation is that rent seeking by strategically situated groups is responsible for much of the resistance.
Because market-oriented reform makes redundant both bureaucrats and job slots for apparatchik appointments, strong resistance to reform exists at the micro level.
Two scenarios could lead to real economic reform: (i) gradual self-limitation by the Communist party as economic decline continues and as the costs of maintaining the existing system increase, or (ii) a breakdown of consensus within the ruling stratum. In this paper, the dual thesis for resistance to reform serves to reinforce the latter scenario.     

Gender Inequality and Economic Growth in Korea

Calibrating an endogenous‐growth model to Korean data, we analyse the impact of gender inequality in Korea on long‐term economic growth. We find that gender equality policies that lower discrimination in the labour market or that increase the time spent by a father on childrearing can contribute positively to female labour market participation and per capita income growth. The simulation results show that when the disparities between men and women at home and in the labour market are completely removed, the female labour force participation rate increases from 54.4 to 67.5%, and the growth rate in per capita income rises from 3.6 to 4.1% on average over a generation.     

Incentives and Female Entrepreneurial Activity: Evidence from Panel Firm Level Data

The goal of this paper is to investigate entrepreneurial activity and to analyze the incentives of female participation in the labor market. Female entrepreneurial activity is closely related to social and economic issues. They represent a driving force, active and effective members of economic, political, professional and managerial societies. On the other hand, they have families with serious maternal responsibilities and inelastic household obligations, roles which they are trying to balance effectively. To that reason, specific actions and carefully designed measures are essential in encouraging and promoting them to engage into entrepreneurial activity. To investigate the issue of entrepreneurial activity, personal characteristics and various motivation incentives are examined in order to determine the major factors that may influence female entrepreneurial spirit in Greece. Obtaining data from 1600 industrial firms located in the prefecture of Piraeus over the period 1999–2009, this study makes use of the panel methodology approach to provide evidence about the main determinants of female entrepreneurship. What is found is that a combination of pull and push motives and effective mentoring framework, in addition to a set of personal characteristics such as risk of failure, educational level, creativity, innovativeness, ambitiousness and marital status, seem important for the encouragement of women entrepreneurship in Greece to start up a new business. The implications seem very substantial for the formulation and implementation of effective support policies and measures for female entrepreneurs’ vital start up and early stage period.     

Arab spring protests and women's labor market outcomes: Evidence from the Egyptian revolution

We analyze the effects of the 2011 Egyptian protests on the relative labor market conditions of women using panel data from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS). Using unique information from the Statistical Database of the Egyptian Revolution, we geocode each “martyr”, i.e. demonstrators who died during the protests, based on the location of the political incident. We construct our measure of the intensity of the protests – the district-level number of “martyrs” – and rely on a Difference-in-Differences approach. We find that the 2011 protests have reduced intra-household differences in labor force participation by increasing women's employment and unemployment relative to men. Women's employment relative to men increased in both the private and informal sectors. Our estimates suggest how economic uncertainty such as the one associated to the recent protests may undermine the importance of cultural factors and attitudes towards female work. We link these findings to the literature showing how a relevant shock to the labor division between women and men may have long run consequences on the role of women in society.     

从农村参与走向城市参与:农民工政治融入实证研究——基于昆明市2084份样本的问卷调查

农民工的城市融入已发展到政治参与及制度改革的关键时期。基于2012年对昆明市2084个农民工政治参与问卷调研数据,采取对数回归方法分析农民工政治融入的影响因素。农民工的政治参与开始从农村向城市转移,但城市参与度低于农村参与度,政治融入水平偏低;新生代、建筑业农民工的城市参与不足,精英农民工的政治融入需求凸显,亟待开辟制度化的参与途径提升其政治地位;对农民工的政治融入具有显著影响的是政治资本、社会资本与文化资本,而经济资本几乎没有影响。农民工政治融入的困境在于城市正式组织发展的滞后所带来的资本匮乏及参与不足。     

The macroeconomics of the quiet revolution: Understanding the implications of the rise in women’s participation for economic growth and inequality

We study the impact of the rise in female labor supply on the economic performance of the United States over the period 1967–2002 through the lens of a calibrated structural model. The model features all the key forces behind the increase in female participation (the “Quiet Revolution”): (1) the decline in marriage rates, (2) the narrowing gender wage gap, (3) the preference (or cultural) shift towards market work, and (4) the change in women’s bargaining power within the household. We find that preference shifts and the rise in relative wages of women were the most important driving forces behind rising women’s participation, while changes in marriage patterns have also had a sizeable effect. We conclude that half of the growth in US earnings per capita over this period can be traced to growth in female labor supply. We also find that the rise in female labor supply has had offsetting effects on income inequality and, therefore, its overall role has been negligible relative to skill-biased demand shifts and rising residual wage volatility.     

Political participation and entrepreneurial initial public offerings in China

This paper examines the economic consequences of political participation by entrepreneurs in China. Using unique data on political participation and initial public offerings by entrepreneurial firms, we find that firms controlled by entrepreneurs who participate in politics exhibit superior post-IPO performance. We also find that firms characterized by political participation are subject to less underpricing. Furthermore, the superior performance is concentrated among firms that operate in an environment characterized by rich rent-seeking opportunities instead of abundant business opportunities, suggesting that political participation is facilitating rent seeking rather than serving simply as a proxy for political recognition for entrepreneurship.