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

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) James Fenske, University of Warwick; Bishnupriya Gupta, University of Warwick; Song Yuan, Zhejiang University

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  influenza_replication 06/26/2022 06:42:AM
district_data.dta application/x-stata-dta 1.4 MB 06/26/2022 03:43:AM
figure3.do text/plain 368 bytes 06/26/2022 03:57:AM
figure5.do text/plain 2.1 KB 06/25/2022 03:13:PM
influenza_ann.dta application/x-stata-dta 172.6 KB 06/16/2022 06:55:AM
table6_wages.do text/plain 3 KB 06/18/2022 08:31:AM
tables.do text/plain 15.6 KB 06/18/2022 07:15:AM
wage_data.dta application/x-stata-dta 3 MB 06/25/2022 04:59:PM

Project Citation: 

Fenske, James , Gupta, Bishnupriya, and Yuan, Song. Demographic Shocks and Women’s Labor Market Participation: Evidence from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in India. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-06-26. https://doi.org/10.3886/E173561V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary 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.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms demographic shock; Female labour force participation; social norms
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage India
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1901 – 1931
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2017 – 2020
Universe:  View help for Universe Censuses of India:

Occupation by sub- sectors  - 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931
Population and Civil condition - 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931

Annual report of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India: 

Deaths by disease- male and female 1917-1920

Wage censuses and reports:

Wage Census of Bengal 1911, 1916, 1925     
Statement of Rural and Urban wages prevailing in the Central Provinces and Berar for 1910-1923     
Wage Census of Bombay Presidency 1911, 1916     
Report on an enquiry into agricultural wages in the Bombay presidency      
Report on the Wage Census of Eastern Bengal and Assam 1911  
Madras Wage Census report 1908, 1911     
Wage Census of the North-west Frontier Province 1912, 1917, 1923, 1928      
Report on the Regular Wage Survey of the Punjab 1912, 1917, 1922, 1927 
The wage census of the United Provinces 1906, 1911, 1916, 1928      
Prices and Wages in India. 1919 (1911, 1916)
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes
Official publications of the Government of India

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source
 Censuses of the Government of India
 Government of India, Reports on mortality by disease
 Government of India, Reports on  wages
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit India

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Published Versions

V1 [2022-06-26]

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