Import Tariff Liberalization, Employment, and Gender in Ethiopia

This paper analyses the impact of trade liberalization on local labour markets in Ethiopia, with a focus on the gender dimension of employment and on the process of structural transformation. By exploiting rich micro-level data on Ethiopian workers, we evaluate the effect of the Ethiopian trade reforms on the changes and composition of employment. We find that districts more exposed to trade liberalization experienced reductions in their employment levels, especially in female employment. We also show that reductions in tariffs trigger a process of sectoral reallocation from agriculture to services and that this process is particularly pronounced for women.