Essays in labor and development economics

This dissertation consists of three essays related to Labor and Development Economics. The first essay explores the gender effects of global integration brought about through trade liberalization, by looking at changes in gender segregation by occupation and sector of labor market in India. Trade can impact occupational gender segregation by increasing competition and changing the existing industrial and occupational structure. In addition trade liberalization affects gender segregation across sectors by causing a gender differentiated reallocation of labor between formal and informal sectors. Our results indicate a decline in occupational gender segregation and a rise in sect oral gender segregation with trade liberalization.;The second essay empirically studies the English language premium in the labor market in response to globalization, by exploiting an exogenous language policy intervention in India. Specifically, differences across birth cohorts and districts in the exposure to English education brought about by language transition policy in the state of West Bengal are used to estimate the effect of the language policy on wage premiums. Our results indicate a significantly high English skill premium in the labor market with a 1% decrease in the probability of learning English lowering weekly wages by 1.6%. On average, this implies a 68% reduction in wages due to the language policy change. This essay is based on joint work with Tanika Chakraborty.;The third essay examines the impact of British colonial institutions of land tax systems on colonial and post colonial period economic performance of India. To extract revenue from its colony, the British implemented two major land tax systems and fundamentally altered the nature of existing property rights in India. In some regions, property rights and taxes were assigned to zamindars or landlords whereas in others they were assigned to ryotwars or cultivators. A few elites were able to accumulate significant economic and political power in the zamindari as opposed to the ryotwari areas. Thus the local political structures diverged across these two types of areas thereby causing differences in the economic performance across the two types of districts. This essay is based on joint work with Dr. Sukkoo Kim.