Female Labor Force Participation, Inequality, and Economic Growth in an Aging Society: Evidence From Mexico

Ivan Mejia, Stanford University
Estela Rivero, Independent Researcher
Isalia Nava , Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

The agenda for Sustainable Development is calling for substantive progress in reducing inequalities across population groups by 2030. We bear this in mind and build on the recent literature of the demographic dividend to analyze the combined effects of changes in the female labor supply and education expansion on the demographic dividend (DD) of Mexico. We use age profiles of labor income and consumption to estimate the Economic Support Ratio and the Total Support Ratio, following the methodology of National Transfer Accounts. We disentangle the age- and sex/education-effects on the DD. We hypothesize that generalized low education levels have pernicious effects on the productivity and economic growth, regardless of the sex distribution of income. However, the full potential of the DD can be achieved with the combined effect of higher female labor supply and education levels, contributing to overcome the negative impact of population aging.

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 Presented in Session 211. Female Schooling, Employment, and Demography