Land Market Restrictions, Women's Labor Force Participation, and Wages in a Rural Economy

Emran, M. Shahe ; Shilpi, Forhad

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: JOBS;    EMPLOYMENT;    RIGHTS;    PRODUCTION;    PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7524
RP-ID  :  WPS7524

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper analyzes the effects of landmarket restrictions on the rural labor market outcomes forwomen. The existing literature emphasizes two mechanismsthrough which land restrictions can affect the economicoutcomes: the collateral value of land, and (in) security ofproperty rights. Analysis of this paper focuses on analternative mechanism where land restrictions increase costsof migration out of villages. The testable prediction ofcollateral effect is that both wages and labor forceparticipation move in the same direction, and insecurity ofproperty rights reduces labor force participation andincreases wages. In contrast, if land restrictions workprimarily through higher migration costs, labor forceparticipation increases, while wages decline. Foridentification, this paper exploits a natural experiment inSri Lanka where historical malaria played a unique role inland policy. This paper provides robust evidence of apositive effect of land restrictions on womens labor forceparticipation, but a negative effect on female wages. Theempirical results thus contradict a collateral or insecureproperty rights effect, but support migration costs as theprimary mechanism.