Female Labor Force Participation: Drivers and Policy Options

The guiding theme of the conference is to identify reasons for low female labor force participation in South Asia and policy options to address them. The core objective of this event is to promote exchanges among policy-makers, academics, policy advocates, researchers, and young economists, especially those living in South Asia, on the back of high-quality, evidence-based, policy-relevant economic research on the said topic. The sessions will feature paper presentations, a keynote lecture, and a high-level policy panel.

South Asia’s female labor force participation today remains among the lowest in the world: more than 400 million working-age women in the region are outside of the labor force, which constitutes a significant output loss. Potential female labor market entrants face barriers to both labor demand and supply as well as labor market frictions. Options to increase female labor force participation potentially include faster job creation in the nonagricultural sector, more rigorous implementation of gender-equal laws, and the removal of disincentives to women working outside the home. These measures are likely to be more effective if accompanied by a shift towards social norms that look more favorably on female employment.

Themes

Papers should be relevant to the following:

• What is the role of demand-side barriers? This could include macroeconomic factors, such as lack of demand for labor, as well as gender-specific factors, such as hiring discrimination, workplace safety, and job amenities.
• How can trade integration, urbanization, and structural transformation be harnessed to pull women into the labor market?
• What is the role of supply-side barriers – such as household constraints, safety, and childcare – in restricting mobility and preventing women from entering the labor market?
• How do labor market frictions – lack of access to information or networks – prevent women from entering labor markets?
• How do laws, social norms, and behavioral biases interact with labor demand and supply?
• Which policies can lift the demand, supply, intermediation, and legal barriers to women’s employment?