Manufacturing growth and the lives of Bangladeshi women

Abstract

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Female Labor Force Participation in Asia: Indonesia Country Study

“…Jensen (2012) finds that giving young Indian women access to call center jobs causes them to delay marriage and reduce fertility. Heath and Mobarak (2014) find similar results when women in Bangladesh gain access to garment factory jobs; they also find that access to garment jobs increases girls' school enrollment. In the Indonesian context, Federman and Levine (2005) find some evidence that growth in manufacturing employment is associated with greater school enrollment and less labor force participation by teenage girls.…”

How Women's Legal Protection from Physical Harm Affects Fertility: Evidence from Nigeria

“…Unlike the Reform here, however, these effects may not have the same magnitude for older women. Similarly, Heath and Mobarak (2015), who document the impact of the multiplication of garment factories, find a small decrease of 0.23 percentage points over 6.4 years of the probability to have a first birth. 26…”

“…Empirical and experimental studies of developing countries have identified three broad factors that affect fertility: access to modern methods of contraception (Goldin and Katz 2002, Bailey 2006, Ashraf et al 2014, Miller and Babiarz 2016, electrification and diffusion of household appliances (Bailey and Collins 2011, Lewis 2013, Grimm et al 2015, and change in education supply or work opportunities (Breierova and Duflo 2004, Jensen 2012, Aaronson et al 2014, Duflo et al 2015, Heath and Mobarak 2015, Lavy and Zablotsky 2015.…”

Does Informal Employment Respond to Growth Opportunities? Trade-Based Evidence from Bangladesh

“…This heterogeneity is particularly important in the Bangladeshi context; as recent evidence indicates, export-driven growth in the country has resulted in increased female labor force participation (Heath and Mobarak 2015). Mobility across employment types may also differ by gender.…”

“…Bangladesh presents an important context for examining the link between trade and informality: the economy has been transformed by growth in the export oriented ready-made garments industry (Heath and Mobarak 2015). At the same time, there has been little change in the share of formal employment during a period of substantial export growth.…”