Covid-19 Lockdown in Ecuador: Are there Gender Differences in Unemployment?
研究厄瓜多尔封锁政策对女性正式就业的影响，发现受限制行业女性失业率上升约15%，年轻、年长和低教育女性受影响更大。
To fight Covid-19, governments have imposed restrictions on personal mobility and social interactions which may have negative consequences in the labor market. These consequences may be different across demographic groups particularly for female workers. We examine whether the policy that restricted operations in some economic sectors affected formal employment for Ecuadorian female workers differently. We use a difference-in-differences-in-differences model to compare female employees working in restricted economic sectors with other workers, before and after the lockdown policy. The results show that the number of unemployment spells rose by approximately 15 per cent for women working in the restricted economic activities. We also document a decrease in the probability of being employed, which is particularly strong for the youngest women (15–24 years-old), oldest women (45–65 years-old), and less educated female workers. We conclude that the lockdown policy imposed in Ecuador is a plausible explanation for women’s job loss in the formal sector.