abstract: 'Recent work in gender economics has identified trade as a potential

  determinant of female labor force participation (REP). It is usually

  suggested that FLFP rises whenever trade expands those sectors which use

  female labor intensively. This paper develops a theoretical model to

  argue that, quite surprisingly, the opposite effects can occur.

  Distinguishing between female intensive sectors (FIS) and male intensive

  sectors (MIS), we show that FLFP may actually fall if trade expands EIS.

  When FIS are capital intensive, trade integration of a capital-abundant

  economy expands FIS and contracts MIS. Consequently, male workers

  migrate from MIS to FIS, diluting the capital-labor ratio in the FIS.

  Under a high complementarity between capital and female labor, the

  marginal productivity of women drops more than that of men. Thus, the

  gender wage gap widens and FLFP falls. Employment patterns in the U.S.

  following NAFTA are broadly consistent with our theory. (C) 2014

  Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.'
affiliation: 'Zoabi, H (Corresponding Author), 100 Novaya St, Moscow, Russia.

  Saure, Philip, Swiss Natl Bank, CH-8022 Zurich, Switzerland.

  Zoabi, Hosny, New Econ Sch, Moscow, Russia.

  Zoabi, Hosny, New Econ Sch, Urals Business Ctr, Moscow, Russia.'
author: Saure, Philip and Zoabi, Hosny
author-email: 'Philip.Saure@snb.ch

  Hosny.zoabi@gmail.com'
author_list:
- family: Saure
  given: Philip
- family: Zoabi
  given: Hosny
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.07.003
eissn: 1872-6089
files: []
issn: 0304-3878
journal: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
keywords: 'Female labor force participation; Gender wage gap; Home production;

  NAFTA'
keywords-plus: 'WOMENS RELATIVE WAGES; INEQUALITY; GROWTH; SPECIALIZATION; LIBERATION;

  DYNAMICS; ENGINES; MARKET; IMPACT; POWER'
language: English
month: NOV
number: SI
number-of-cited-references: '47'
orcid-numbers: Saure, Philip/0000-0002-9923-2965
pages: 17-33
papis_id: 1cc00af0541c66fe9ad0829ea273877d
ref: Saure2014internationaltrade
times-cited: '43'
title: International trade, the gender wage gap and female labor force participation
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000346223900002
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '58'
volume: '111'
web-of-science-categories: Economics
year: '2014'