Cream Brown Bag: Anri Sakakibara (KCL)

Abstract: There is little consensus on whether access to foreign export markets can promote gender equality in developing countries. This paper leverages the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that came into force in 2001 as a natural experiment to explore whether the disproportionate expansion of the female-intensive wearing apparel sector can trigger the structural transformation of the female labour force in a way which promotes gender equality at the household level. By using a difference-in-differences strategy and through relying on panel data, I find that women in provinces that were more exposed to the BTA were more likely to work in the wearing apparel sector. These women also increased their income relative to their husbands. I then examine whether such improvements in labour market opportunities and relative income led to changes in the allocation of household resources that could be indicative of higher female intrahousehold bargaining power. I find a lack of evidence that the BTA led to greater female intrahousehold bargaining power, and propose a few explanations.

Location: 321, Drayton House