Impact of Family Wealth on Female Labour Force Participation in Odisha

Using the National Family Health Survey (2015-16), this paper explores female labor force participation mediated by household wealth in their cluster space, household deprivation with basic entitlements, respondent education, caste, region-specific dummies, and along with some controls like language, poor health, and age. We saw that the behavior of female labor supply decisions varies according to the regions, with the proportion of deprived or richest households in a cluster changing. With the increase in the proportion of deprived households in a cluster, the Female Labor Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) is also increasing in Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) and Inland Central/Northern regions whereas, with an increase in the proportion of prosperous households in a cluster, the FLFPR is decreasing in Inland Central/Northern and Eastern/Coastal regions. We find that the female labor force participation rate by education follows a U-shape in both urban and rural areas of Odisha s,tate but it does not hold across castes. Regression results show that female autonomy through decision-making power, control over assets, and freedom of movement has a significant positive impact on the decision of female labor supply outcome at the individual level as well as the district level. Household deprivation with basic entitlements emerges as an important variable that explains decreasing women's workforce participation, and the interaction effect of poor space and non-deprived households is critical in understanding women's work participation. We find that there is a non-linear impact of education, age, and family wealth on female LFPR in the state of Odisha