性别特定交通成本与女性时间使用：来自印度粉色凭证计划的证据
Gender-Specific Transportation Costs and Female Time Use: Evidence from India’s Pink Slip Program
The Economic Journal · 2026 · [{"name": "Yutong Chen", "affiliation": ["The University of Texas at Arlington"]}, {"name": "Kerem Coşar", "affiliation": ["Center for Economic and Policy Research"]}, {"name": "Devaki Ghose", "affiliation": ["World Bank Group"]}, {"name": "Shirish Mahendru", "affiliation": ["Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit"]}, {"name": "Sheetal Sekhri", "affiliation": ["University of Virginia"]}]
中文摘要
摘要 在发展中国家，降低性别特定的通勤障碍可能对女性的劳动结果产生异质性效应。我们研究了印度若干邦为女性提供免费公交乘车的项目（Pink Slip 项目），采用合成双重差分（synthetic difference-in-differences）方法考察其对交通支出、时间使用和劳动供给的影响。我们发现，该项目大幅降低了公交相关支出。然而，当把所有女性合并考察时，我们并未发现出行时间、家庭生产或劳动供给发生显著变化。在这些总体效应之下，女性的反应因就业状况、婚姻状况和教育程度而存在显著差异：政策实施前已就业的未婚女性增加了劳动供给，而受教育程度较低和中等的已婚女性则将时间从有偿工作重新配置到家务劳动。总体就业率在短期内保持不变，这凸显出降低通勤成本并不能普遍改善女性的劳动力市场结果。
Abstract
Abstract Reducing gender-specific commuting barriers in developing countries can have heterogeneous effects on women’s labor outcomes. We study a program that offers free bus rides for women in several Indian states (the Pink Slip program) using a synthetic difference-in-differences approach to examine impacts on transportation expenditures, time use, and labor supply. We find that the program substantially reduces bus-related expenditures. However, when considering all women together, we find no significant changes in travel time, household production, or labor supply. Beneath these aggregate effects, responses vary sharply by employment, marital status, and education. Unmarried women employed prior to the policy increase labor supply, while married women with low and medium levels of education reallocate time away from paid work toward household chores. Overall employment rates remain unchanged in the short run, highlighting that reducing commuting costs does not uniformly improve women’s labor market outcomes.