AEA Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 112,
May 2022
(pp. 272–76)
Abstract
In many high-income economies, the COVID-19 recession has resulted in unprecedented declines in women's employment. We examine how the forces that underlie this observation play out in developing countries. A force affecting high- and low-income countries alike is increased childcare needs during school closures. In Nigeria, mothers of school-age children experience the largest declines in employment during the pandemic, just as in high-income countries. A key difference is the role of the sectoral distribution of employment: whereas in high-income economies, reduced employment in contact-intensive services had a large impact on women, this sector plays a minor role in low-income countries.Citation
Alon, Titan, Matthias Doepke, Kristina Manysheva, and Michèle Tertilt. 2022. "Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 112: 272–76. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20221013Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
- I12 Health Behavior
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
- I28 Education: Government Policy
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration