Mineral Mining and Female Employment

OxCarre WP: We use the rapid expansion of the number of mineral mines in Sub-Saharan Africa to explore changes in local labor markets. Matching over two decades of panel data on industrial mines to survey data for half a million women and exploiting the spatial and temporal variation in the data in a difference-in-difference strategy, we find that opening of an industrial mine induces a structural shift whereby women switch from working in agriculture to services. We also find that the probability to earn cash income increases and women become less likely to work seasonally once a mine opens nearby. The results illustrate that mineral mining creates non-agricultural employment opportunities for women despite their absence from the mining workforce. The spillover effects wear off with distance from mine and the effects on service employment are reversed when a mine closes.