Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/207490 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12666
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We highlight the role of home productivity in explaining the gender gap in labor force participation (LFP), and the non-monotonic relationship of women's LFP with their education in developing countries (India) in contrast to the developed economies (United Kingdom, U.K.). We construct a model of couples' time allocation decisions allowing for both market and home productivity to improve with own education. Our theoretical predictions match the data for India at low levels of women's education but over-predict labor supply at higher levels, unlike the U.K.. Incorporating constraints imposed by social norms regarding the gendered division of labor shows that norms can act as a binding constraint, producing much smaller increases in women's labor supply to market work at higher education levels in transition economies. Our analysis suggests that home productivity, along with social norms regarding couples' time allocation, can be critical determinants of women's labor supply in developing countries.
Subjects: 
women's labor supply
social norms
home production
education
India
U.K.
JEL: 
E24
J22
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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