Abstract:
Provides a framework to view the evolution of female labor force participation (LFP) in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region through household dynamics and changes in human capital investments, family formation and household characteristics, social norms, and economic participation. Nonunitary models of the household, in which individuals’ market and outside opportunities generate bargaining power within the household, can have qualitatively different implications from those of unitary models. Assessing the effects of development on women’s well-being requires a characterization of how resources are allocated within families, which affects whether welfare-enhancing policy margins can be identified to correct either inequities in the household (in the cooperative model) or inefficiencies (in the noncooperative model). If women are part of a larger economic unit—the household—men’s economic gains may benefit women to the extent that spouses share resources and interact; the process of intrahousehold decision-making can provide alternative policy angles depending on the nature of family interaction.
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