How do women weather economic shocks? A review of the evidence

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

The Economic Crisis of 2008 and the Added Worker Effect in Transition Countries

“…The presence of children in the home remains a formidable barrier to joining the labor force even when households experience income shocks. Individual and household-level vulnerabilities strengthen the female added worker effect, in line with the findings from other countries (Sabarwal, Sinha, and Buvinic 2011). We find that variations in both institutional and economic characteristics play a role in determining the presence of the female added worker effect.…”

“…They reveal patterns similar to the ones exhibited in other parts of the world (Sabarwal, Sinha, and Buvinic 2011). Focusing on women's results, we observe that marriage lowers their probability of labor force participation by 11.56 percentage points (Table 5).…”

“…Similar to the demand-side responses, this mechanism, too, can be viewed as a second-round impact of a crisis (Heltberg et al 2012;Sabarwal, Sinha, and Buvinic 2011).…”

“…In this paper, we critically evaluate this claim by assessing the extent to which the increase in the female labor force participation rate, in particular, may reflect a distress response to the crisis, as has been found to be the case during past crises in other regions (Cerrutti 2000;Sabarwal, Sinha, and Buvinic 2011). We do so by investigating the presence of the added worker effect, broadly defined as an increase in labor supply in response to an income shock.…”

Sanctioned to Death? The Impact of Economic Sanctions on Life Expectancy and Its Gender Gap

“…During sanction episodes, (i) women might be subject to additional health risks and (ii) at the same time they are less likely to receive needed medical treatment. The first reason is partially explained by women being forced to enter the labor market and to work more hours to secure the subsistence of their household (the so-called added-worker effect; see Sabarwal et al 2011 for a survey on economic shocks and female labor force participation). Labor market participation may expose women to hazardous working conditions with significant health consequences (Lim et al 2012;WHO 2009).…”