Female Labor Force Participation Rate and Economic Growth

Abstract: This thesis analysed the effect of female labor force participation rate (FLFPR) on economicgrowth and included changes in male labor force participation rate (MLFPR) to help improve thepower of the model. Here, three robust regressions were used on the sample of 16 Latin Countries(Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala,Honduras, Venezuela, RB, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador) for theperiod of 1995-2015 in order to identify the effect of each key variable when tested separately andwhen tested together. According to the results, the coefficients of FLFPR and MLFPR are differentand also the addition of MLFPR to the model that has an explanatory variable FLFPR anddependent variable economic growth clearly improves the predicting power of the model and helpsobtain better coefficients. It was also identified that FLFPR has a strong positive relationship witheconomic growth, while MLFPR has a negative effect on the latter. Finally, the existence of u-shape relationship between FLFPR and economic growth was reaffirmed in this thesis, while itwas also shown that MLFPR does not have a u-shape relationship with the economic growth.