Gender gaps and poverty traps in Mexico's labor markets
(2020) EKHS42 20201Department of Economic History
- Abstract
- This research evaluated the existence and magnitude of different gender gap dimensions in the Mexican labor markets using a cross-section database from 2018. We also analyze how narrowing these gender gaps can contribute to reduce poverty levels in Mexico. Our results rejected the existence of a gender gap between formal and informal occupations in Mexico. This represents new evidence for the literature that has widely documented the existence of this kind of gender gap due to an over-representation of women in the informal sector. On the other hand, we confirmed that the country has a significant gender gap in terms of labor force participation. In fact, Mexico is the Latin American country with the lowest female labor participation in... (More)
- This research evaluated the existence and magnitude of different gender gap dimensions in the Mexican labor markets using a cross-section database from 2018. We also analyze how narrowing these gender gaps can contribute to reduce poverty levels in Mexico. Our results rejected the existence of a gender gap between formal and informal occupations in Mexico. This represents new evidence for the literature that has widely documented the existence of this kind of gender gap due to an over-representation of women in the informal sector. On the other hand, we confirmed that the country has a significant gender gap in terms of labor force participation. In fact, Mexico is the Latin American country with the lowest female labor participation in the whole region. We also find that the likelihood of mothers having a job decreases even more when they have young children, while their time spent in unpaid work tends to increase. Finally, we showed that poor mothers are less likely to have a job than non-poor mothers. This is also new evidence for the literature which usually documents the opposite dynamic. We argue that these findings represent a poverty trap for Mexico that the country needs to overcome. The lack of participation of mothers in the labor market is reinforcing the poverty situation of their households. Therefore, we suggest that the Mexican government should reinstate the subsidized childcare program that was cancelled in 2019 and target it to non-working mothers living in poverty conditions. This will help them to join the labor market and in some cases their earnings will be the determinant for the whole household to live above the national poverty lines. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9019617
- author
- Lopez Moreno Flores, Isaac LU
- supervisor
-
- Kirk Scott LU
- organization
- course
- EKHS42 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- gender gaps, informality, labor force participation, multidimensional poverty
- language
- English
- id
- 9019617
- date added to LUP
- 2020-07-03 12:05:19
- date last changed
- 2020-07-03 12:05:19
@misc{9019617,
abstract = {{This research evaluated the existence and magnitude of different gender gap dimensions in the Mexican labor markets using a cross-section database from 2018. We also analyze how narrowing these gender gaps can contribute to reduce poverty levels in Mexico. Our results rejected the existence of a gender gap between formal and informal occupations in Mexico. This represents new evidence for the literature that has widely documented the existence of this kind of gender gap due to an over-representation of women in the informal sector. On the other hand, we confirmed that the country has a significant gender gap in terms of labor force participation. In fact, Mexico is the Latin American country with the lowest female labor participation in the whole region. We also find that the likelihood of mothers having a job decreases even more when they have young children, while their time spent in unpaid work tends to increase. Finally, we showed that poor mothers are less likely to have a job than non-poor mothers. This is also new evidence for the literature which usually documents the opposite dynamic. We argue that these findings represent a poverty trap for Mexico that the country needs to overcome. The lack of participation of mothers in the labor market is reinforcing the poverty situation of their households. Therefore, we suggest that the Mexican government should reinstate the subsidized childcare program that was cancelled in 2019 and target it to non-working mothers living in poverty conditions. This will help them to join the labor market and in some cases their earnings will be the determinant for the whole household to live above the national poverty lines.}},
author = {{Lopez Moreno Flores, Isaac}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Gender gaps and poverty traps in Mexico's labor markets}},
year = {{2020}},
}