世界银行-国际活动与女性劳动力参与：发展中国家服务企业的新证据（英）

Policy Research Working Paper11198International Activity and Female Labor ParticipationNew Evidence for Services Firms in Developing CountriesLuis Aguilar Luna Deborah Winkler Economic Policy Global Department September 2025 Produced by the Research Support TeamAbstractThe Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.Policy Research Working Paper 11198Using a cross-section of more than 33,000 services firms in 104 low- and middle-income countries from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, this paper examines whether the female labor share premium of international firms relative to non-international firms in manufacturing also holds for services firms. Unlike the manufacturing sector, the paper finds a negative relationship between exporting and global value chain participation and the female labor share for services firms, while no relationship is found for importing or foreign ownership status, controlling for firm output, productivity, technology intensity, and fixed effects. The female labor share gap for exporters was larger before COVID-19, and the gap for global value chain participants is no longer significant after COVID-19. Controlling for sectoral relative wages between men and women does not change the findings in a smaller subsample of economies. Controlling for female top management and ownership reveals a female labor share gap for exporters, global value chain participants, and importers. Using an alternative esti-mator and data set confirms the female labor share gap in services firms. This may be attributed to the sectoral segre-gation between women and men, with women tending to pursue work opportunities in less skill- and export-intensive services sectors compared to men.This paper is a product of the Economic Policy Global Department. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/prwp. The authors may be contacted at dwinkler2@worldbank.org. International Activity and Female Labor Participation: New Evidence for Services Firms in Developing Countries1 Luis Aguilar Luna2 and Deborah Winkler3 Keywords: Services firms, trade, global value chains, women, female labor share, labor force participation. JEL