Female Labor Participation in the Arab World: Some Evidence from Panel Data in Morocco

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Gender Inequality: Entrepreneurship Development in the MENA Region

“…There is agreement among international business specialists from the business, economic, and development fields that improving conditions for female entrepreneurship and increasing the number of female-led ventures plays a central role in achieving a nation's "sustainable development" [14,15]. The achievement of goal 5 is especially important for MENA states, as they have continuously reported the lowest number of women in the labor force than any other region [16]. There is little agreement, however, on the nature of the entrepreneurial policies needed to support women's development.…”

Islamism and gender relations in the Muslim world as reflected in recent World Values Survey data

“…Ever since Goldin (1995) proposed the idea that there is a U-shaped female labor force participation rate function in economic development, empirical research is stunned by the question why the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are characterized by such low international rates of female labor force participation (Gaddis and Klasen, 2014;Ganguli, Hausmann and Viarengo, 2014;Lechman and Kaur, 2015;Tsani, Paroussos, Fragiadakis, Charalambidis and Capros, 2015;Verme, 2015;Verme, Barry and Guennouni, 2014). The typical verdict of one of these recent empirical studies on the low female labor force participation rate in the MENA region was that the U-shape hypothesis per se does not provide clear leads on why female labor force participation rates in the MENA region are so low (Verme, Barry and Guennouni, 2014).…”

“…The typical verdict of one of these recent empirical studies on the low female labor force participation rate in the MENA region was that the U-shape hypothesis per se does not provide clear leads on why female labor force participation rates in the MENA region are so low (Verme, Barry and Guennouni, 2014). This gap in labor economics research about a vital tendency in the economic development in one of Europe's most important neighboring regions is all the more perplexing since there seems to be a growing agreement in recent literature (de Haan, 2015;Kabeer, 2012;Kabeer and Natali, 2013) that per se gender equality, particularly in education and employment, significantly contributes to economic growth (Gaddis and Klasen, 2014).…”

Bucking the Trend: Female Labor Market Participation in Kosovo

“…There has been some limited research on labor markets with unusually low female participation and these have largely focused on the first and last of these explanations. Verne, Barry, and Guennouni (2014), analyzing the causes of low female labor market participation in Arab countries, particularly Morocco, emphasize the role of economic growth and gender norms in these countries. They find that economic growth has created only a relatively small number of new jobs and that few of these have been in female-friendly sectors.…”