Is Pro-Labor Law Pro-Women? Evidence from India

45 Pages Posted: 14 Sep 2010 Last revised: 13 Jun 2015

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 1, 2014

Abstract

I study the effects of state-level differences in labor regulation on labor market outcomes of women in India. Using a representative sample of urban households from 2005, I find that labor regulation has a large negative effect on women’s economic activity, mainly employment. My estimates suggest that a one standard deviation increase in the labor regulation measure decreases the probability of a woman being economically active by 3% to 4% — the implied decrease in female labor force is between 15% and 18%. The effects on men’s participation are around zero. I do not find labor regulation to have a significant effect on male wages or the gender wage gap. Finally, labor regulation is associated with women having less say at home and lower sex ratio.

Keywords: gender gap, regulation of labor, employment

JEL Classification: J16, J23, K31

Suggested Citation

Montag, Josef, Is Pro-Labor Law Pro-Women? Evidence from India (March 1, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1676914 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1676914

Josef Montag (Contact Author)

Charles University ( email )

nam. Curieovych 7
Prague 1, 11640
Czech Republic

HOME PAGE: http://josefmontag.github.io

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