Demographic Shocks and Women’s Labor Market Participation: Evidence from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in India

How did the 1918 influenza pandemic affect female labor force participation in India over the short run and the medium run? We use an event-study approach at the district level and four waves of decadal census data in order to answer this question. We find that districts most adversely affected by influenza mortality saw a temporary increase in female labor force participation in 1921, an increase that was concentrated in the service sector. We find suggestive evidence that distress labor supply by widows and rising wages help account for this result.

1918年流感大流行如何在短期与中期维度对印度女性劳动力参与率产生影响？为解答该问题，我们采用区级层面的事件研究法，并依托四轮十年一次的人口普查数据展开分析。研究结果显示，受流感死亡率冲击最为严重的地区，其女性劳动力参与率在1921年出现暂时性提升，且该提升集中于服务业领域。我们还找到了启发性证据，表明寡妇的窘迫性劳动供给与工资水平上涨可对该结果作出解释。