Project 3 will generate one country case study focusing on how migration policies and spatial patterns of development affect female employment opportunities in South Africa, and one comparative analysis including India, Bangladesh, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, Brazil and Bolivia identifying the role of different sectoral and spatial growth trajectories.

How do growth and structural change affect the spatial pattern of employment? Do women and men benefit from urbanization and agglomeration to the same extent? Growth not only affects labor force participation (project 2), but also comes with changes in the spatial distribution of people and employment, including urbanization. Using coordinated country case studies, this project will develop and analyze a number of indicators for the spatial distribution of male and female workers. We will study these for various age groups and types of workers (e.g. formal sector employment, paid informal work, and subsistence agriculture). The relationship of spatial patterns with growth and structural change will be analyzed using census data for South Africa, India, Bangladesh, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, Brazil, and Bolivia. These countries cover a range of growth and political experiences. Many countries (such as Malawi and Mozambique) still remain largely rural economies, generating mainly informal employment in agriculture with little change in spatial patterns. In contrast, South Africa for example has seen a slow increase in permanent urban settlement in post-apartheid years, also among females (Posel, 2010). Particular attention will be given to the scope for (spatially targeted) policies on private sector development and entry barriers in the informal and small enterprise sector.