When Women's Work Disappears: Marriage and Fertility Decisions in Peru

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies the gendered labor market and demographic effects of trade liberalization in Peru. To identify these effects, we use variation in the exposure of local labor markets to import competition from China based on their baseline industrial composition. On average, the increase in Chinese imports during 1998-2008 led to a persistent decline in the employment share of low-educated female workers but had smaller and transitory effects on the employment of low-educated men. In contrast to the predictions of Becker's model of household specialization, we find that the increase in import competition during this period increased the share of single low-educated people and decreased their marriage rates. There is little evidence that import com-petition affected fertility decisions. The results highlight the role of gains from joint consumption in marriage formation.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10602

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Labor Demand
• Subject: import competition ; marriage formation ; fertility

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Mansour, Hani ; Medina, Pamela ; Velásquez, Andrea
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/279353
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET