86 10 851 https://urss.warwick.ac.uk/files/original/3021d67d9b0209b03fafd480eeee4451.pdf 44ea0973c973f1571ecc81a0e27c77dc Academic Paper An academic paper Abstract The abstract of the paper This paper investigates whether the post-COVID rise in rural female labour force par- ticipation (RFLFP) in India reflects distress-driven labour supply. Using a state-level pseudo-panel constructed from the Periodic Labour Force Survey between 2017-18 and 2023-24, we measure states’ exposure to the COVID-19 shock using the pre-pandemic share of rural male non-farm employment in lockdown-vulnerable industries. We esti- mate an event-study difference-in-differences model with state and year fixed effects to test whether more exposed states experienced larger increases in RFLFP. Rural female participation rose from 24.6% to 47.6% over the period, with unpaid family helpers ac- counting for approximately 55% of this increase; participation excluding unpaid helpers also rose from 15.0% to 25.3%. The rise began before the pandemic and shows no sign of unwinding afterwards, so its timing is inconsistent with a purely COVID-specific distress response. Our test finds no statistically significant evidence that states with higher pre- pandemic male employment vulnerability experienced larger post-pandemic increases in RFLFP, but the estimates are imprecise and sensitive to weighting and to individual states. They therefore neither confirm nor reject distress as a driver of the rise. Meta Tags Meta tags Gender Economics, Labour Economics, Development Economics Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Driven by distress or built to stay? How pre-COVID male employment vulnerability shaped regional rural female labour force participation: Evidence from India from 2017 to 2024 Subject The topic of the resource Gender and Labour Economics Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Valliammai Subramanian, Suchismita Roy, Sarah Sajan