I många länder med låg medelinkomst är kvinnors deltagande i arbetslivet inte alls lika vanligt som i länder med hög medelinkomst. En ny studie, ”Trade and Female Labor Participation: Stylized Facts Using a Global Dataset”, undersöker om andelen kvinnor som är anställda i 29 000 tillverkningsföretag i 64 länder med relativt låg medelinkomst påverkas av om företagen är involverade i internationell handel eller ej.

Resultat:

The study finds a female labor share premium for all four trading types [exporters, importers, global value chain participants and foreign firms], controlling for firm output, capital intensity, total factor productivity, and fixed effects. The findings also hold after controlling for differences in relative wages between men and women and excluding traditional export sectors (apparel and electronics) from the sample. The female labor share premium is much higher for production workers compared with non-production workers, implying that women specialize in low-skill production. In line with these findings, the study finds that the female labor share premium for exporters and global value chain participants is highest in low-tech sectors. And female ownership and management expand the female labor share premium for trading firms.

Detta kanske kan ses som ytterligare en fördel av handel länder emellan: Fenomenet tycks bidra till att underlätta för kvinnor att lönearbeta. Dessutom:

[T]he results suggest that although average wage rates are lower for firms with higher female labor shares, this negative correlation is smaller for trading firms.