Globalization and Female Empowerment: Evidence from Myanmar

This paper examines whether globalization promotes female empowerment by improving the job opportunities available to women. Previous work has documented that exporting causally improved working conditions at predominantly female garment factories in Myanmar. In this study, restricting to garment factory neighborhoods, we find that women living near exporting factories (as opposed to nonexporting factories) report significantly higher employment rates and more joint household decision-making; they have lower tolerance for domestic violence and are less likely to be victims of domestic violence. We reach the same conclusions with an instrumental variables strategy that uses distance to the airport as an instrument.