Structural Transformation in Agricultural Employment: Gender Disparities

Abstract

Long-term economic development modifies the composition of the economies by transferring the GDP's contribution and resources from least productive sector to advanced ones. After being relatively stable till 1980’s, India witnessed a significant structural shift during post-reform period. In this article we examined the aspect structural transformation in India using annual time series data for the period of 1991 to 2022. We specifically focused on examining gender disparities in employment transitions from agriculture sector and role of GDP per cepita in shifting workforce from agriculture sector to other sectors of the economy. To this end ARDL model is used for estimation purpose. The findings of the study reveal that during the study period, India witnessed a workforce movement, from agriculture to industry and services—a symbol of the country's economic progress. But the process of change didn't happen equally for men and women. Women continued to be disproportionately concentrated in agriculture, even though male employment in agriculture fell more rapidly. The results revealed that elasticity of workforce withdrawal is higher for male workers as compared to females. A 1% increase in GDP per capita reduces male agricultural employment by 0.93% and female agricultural employment by only 0.58% in the long run. The study highlights the need for specific policies to support more inclusive and gender-equitable labor market outcomes of economic growth.