Women's labor participation and its contribution to economic growth: Quantile regression model

It is believed that women's participation in the labor force enables them to be more effective in economic, social, and political fields and to contribute positively to the economic growth of the country. It is emphasized that with the inclusion of women in the labor force, productivity will increase and the labor market will expand. Thus, it is suggested that women, in general, will contribute to economic growth and, at the same time, will have a vital importance for social development. It is also among the existing thoughts that the economic independence of women will lead to the reduction of gender inequality and the strengthening of women's rights. However, there are conflicting results in studies investigating the relationship between female labor force participation and growth in the literature. Generally, mean-based regression methods are used in the studies. The fact that the income levels of the countries are different and the extreme values reveal the necessity of using the quantile method, which takes into account the extreme values, rather than the mean-based regression methods. In this context, in the study, whether women's labor force participation increased growth for 35 OECD countries between 2000 and 2020 was investigated by panel quantile regression analysis. As a result, it was concluded that at lower levels of GDP, female labor force participation affects growth in a statistically significant and positive way. However, in countries with higher GDP, no statistically significant relationship was found between female labor force participation and growth.