Media-Reported Violence and Female Labor Supply

Abstract

This paper explores how safety concerns and cultural norms associated with female purity have an impact on female labor supply in urban India. I find that a 1 standard deviation increase in lagged media reports per 1,000 people of local sexual assaults reduces the probability that a woman is employed outside her home by 0.67 percentage points (or 5.5% of the sample average). I find that this is a short-lived effect and is significant despite controlling for the underlying level of violence against women reported to the police or after controlling for exogenous gender-specific labor demand shocks.