Employer-Provided Transport Infrastructure and Female Spatial Mobility
RCTClinical Trial
Concerns regarding physical safety and social reputational risks in public transit severely restrict rural unmarried women from commuting to urban labor markets, causing localized labor market isolation.
Picture this
Think of a child who is not allowed to walk through a busy, unlit neighborhood to reach an after-school art class. When the art school provides a door-to-door, supervised shuttle bus with a trusted driver, parents feel completely safe letting the child attend every single class.
What the evidence says
Providing recruited placement channels with safe transport options enabled a 4.6 percentage point increase in BPO employment (p < 0.01) and a 2.4 percentage point increase in total female employment outside the village (p < 0.05), overcoming baseline travel restrictions.
- Who was studied
- 1,361 young women aged 15–21 at baseline across 160 rural villages located 50–150 km from Delhi.
- How
- Field experiment assessing female spatial workforce participation enabled by BPO employer-provided daily commuting vans and supervised urban housing facilities.
What to do
Require or subsidize secure, dedicated transport services for female workers to unlock rural-to-urban labor mobility in conservative regions.
From the source
"BPO firms typically provide transport (such as vans or buses) that pick workers up directly from their villages and return them after their shifts, alleviating safety concerns that normally restrict female mobility."
517 labor market opportunities QJE April '12.pdf