Effects of Trade on Female Labor Force Participation

Philip Sauré and Hosny Zoabi

No 2009-12, Working Papers from Swiss National Bank

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.

Keywords: Trade; Female Labor Force Participation; Fertility; Technological Change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F16 J13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Effects of Trade on Female Labor Force Participation (2010)
Working Paper: Effects of Trade on Female Labor Force Participation (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:snb:snbwpa:2009-12

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