AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE THE LABOR PRODUCTIVITY OF FEMALE HOME-BASED WORKERS IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

In Pakistan, the female labor force participation rate is 22.0%, and almost 36% of employed females are involved in the informal economy, and most of them are home-based workers (HBWs). As per the UN-Women report, HBWs (65% of them are women) contributed nearly Rs. 400 billion through their earnings to the economy. This figure is about 3.8% of the total GDP in the year 2013-14. Although they have a massive contribution to the informal economy, they are overlooked and not included in the mainstream market economy. They are confronted with inter-generational poverty as their earnings have not been influential in decreasing their poverty level. There is an immense requirement to enhance their capacity for better productivity and improved living standards. Against this backdrop, the basic objective of this study is to empirically investigate the role of four factors, namely, (1) human capital (2) middle man (3) social capital, and (4) awareness of laws in determining the labor productivity of female HBWs in Punjab. “The Punjab Home-Based Workers Survey 2016” dataset, gathered by the Bureau of Statistics, Punjab, has been used for analysis. It is observed that the labor productivity of female home-based workers is on the higher side who have awareness of labor laws, received training, a higher education, participated in industrial demonstrations, and don’t depend on a middleman for obtaining the raw material. The results provide evidence to suggest policy implications and the implementation of regulations regarding HBWs for financial empowerment.