From Dusk Till Dawn: The Impact of Lifting Night Shift Bans on Female Employment

We examine whether lifting a ban on the employment of female workers at night can spur firm demand for female labor. Different states in India have amended their labor regulations to remove a prohibition on the employment of female workers on night shifts in factories. Using firm-level panel data and a dynamic difference-in-differences estimator we find that following the regulatory relaxation, large firms significantly increased both the share and number of female workers. These effects are driven by larger firms operating in export-oriented industries and tighter labor markets. Our findings demonstrate that removing gender-discriminatory regulations can expand female employment and improve firm flexibility in hiring.