BACKGROUND Due to its young age structure and taboos on widow remarriage, India has a large and relatively young female widow population. Many of India’s widows are in prime working ages. India has one of the lowest female labor force participation rates in the world. OBJECTIVE This paper calculates the effect of widowhood on the labor force participation of Indian widows. The analysis documents how labor force participation changes associated with widowhood vary by age, caste/religion, relation to head of household, rural/urban status, and region. METHODS Using the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), the analysis tracks 3,217 women who experience the loss of their spouse between the two survey waves. Individual fixed effects regressions are used to measure the association between the transition to widowhood and changes in the number of days worked in the past year. RESULTS Widowhood was associated with a decrease in days worked for older women; but for women widowed before age 52, widowhood was associated with a large increase in the number of days they worked. Widows who joined the labor force were more likely to gain employment in permanent and salaried work than married women. Widows who resided with their in-laws or who became the household head after their husband’s death saw increases in their work participation whereas those who lived in households headed by their adult children experienced negative widowhood effects on their work participation. CONTRIBUTION These findings highlight the important link between marital status and female employment in India. 1 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Email: meganre@sas.upenn.edu. Reed: The labor force participation of Indian women before and after widowhood 674 https://www.demographic-research.org

中文翻译：

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印度妇女守寡前后的劳动力参与情况

背景技术由于年轻的年龄结构和寡妇再婚的禁忌，印度拥有大量且相对年轻的女性寡妇人口。印度的许多寡妇正处于黄金工作年龄。印度是世界上女性劳动力参与率最低的国家之一。目的 本文计算了守寡对印度寡妇劳动力参与的影响。分析记录了与守寡相关的劳动力参与变化如何因年龄、种姓/宗教、与户主的关系、农村/城市地位和地区而异。方法 使用印度人类发展调查 (IHDS)，该分析追踪了 3,217 名在两次调查之间失去配偶的女性。个体固定效应回归用于衡量向寡妇过渡与过去一年工作天数变化之间的关联。结果 守寡与老年妇女的工作天数减少有关；但对于 52 岁之前丧偶的妇女来说，丧偶与她们工作的天数大幅增加有关。加入劳动力大军的寡妇比已婚妇女更有可能在长期和有薪工作中就业。与姻亲住在一起或在丈夫去世后成为户主的寡妇，其工作参与率有所增加，而居住在由成年子女为户主的家庭中的寡妇则对他们的工作参与产生负面影响。贡献 这些发现强调了印度婚姻状况与女性就业之间的重要联系。1 美国宾夕法尼亚州费城宾夕法尼亚大学。电子邮件：meganre@sas.upenn.edu。里德：印度妇女守寡前后的劳动力参与情况 674 https://www.demographic-research.org