Female Labor Force Participation and Economic Growth. Re-Examination of U-Shaped Curve.

Abstract

The paper contributes by providing new insights into the relationship between female labor force and economic growth in 162 countries over the period 1990-2012. We anticipate uncovering U-shaped impact of economic growth on female labor force. To examine the previous we deploy longitudinal data analysis assuming non-linearity between variables. Our main findings support the hypothesis on U-shaped relationship between female labor force participation and economic growth, however high cross-country variability on the field is evident.