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The Importance of Education for the Relationship between Economic Integration and Female Labor Market Outcomes: A Developing Country Analysis

Lindgren, Cassandra LU and Sievers, Julian LU (2014) NEKN05 20141
Department of Economics
Abstract
Women in developing countries have been and are still suffering from various disadvantages on the labor market. We use a fixed effects model with a hierarchical structure to assess the empirical relationship between economic integration, measured by trade, exports and imports, and the female labor force participation rate (FLFPR). The relationship between economic integration and the female employment shares in the agriculture, industry and service sector is also analyzed. Additionally, this investigation is extended by looking at how these relationships are affected by the level of various measures of female education. The research is conducted for 87 developing countries between the years 1980 and 2010. Contrary to most previous research... (More)
Women in developing countries have been and are still suffering from various disadvantages on the labor market. We use a fixed effects model with a hierarchical structure to assess the empirical relationship between economic integration, measured by trade, exports and imports, and the female labor force participation rate (FLFPR). The relationship between economic integration and the female employment shares in the agriculture, industry and service sector is also analyzed. Additionally, this investigation is extended by looking at how these relationships are affected by the level of various measures of female education. The research is conducted for 87 developing countries between the years 1980 and 2010. Contrary to most previous research that has used aggregate country-level data for FLFPR, the hierarchical structure of our model allows our data to vary across time, countries as well as age-cohorts. The results show that trade has a positive effect on FLFPR but this effect only appears when average years of education for women is included together with trade as an interaction term in our regression analysis. When disaggregating trade into exports and imports, these measures of economic integration have a significant effect on FLFPR. Likewise there is an effect of export and imports when different measures of education are included as part in the interaction term, indicating the importance of female education for the relationship. While exports have a positive effect, imports have a negative effect on FLFPR. For the female employment shares an effect of trade as well as exports and imports can be seen in some cases, mostly when education is part of the regressions in the interaction term. (Less)
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author
Lindgren, Cassandra LU and Sievers, Julian LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKN05 20141
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Female labor market outcomes, female education, developing countries, interaction term, cohort-specific data
language
English
id
4457796
date added to LUP
2014-06-26 15:02:43
date last changed
2014-06-26 15:02:43
@misc{4457796,
  abstract     = {{Women in developing countries have been and are still suffering from various disadvantages on the labor market. We use a fixed effects model with a hierarchical structure to assess the empirical relationship between economic integration, measured by trade, exports and imports, and the female labor force participation rate (FLFPR). The relationship between economic integration and the female employment shares in the agriculture, industry and service sector is also analyzed. Additionally, this investigation is extended by looking at how these relationships are affected by the level of various measures of female education. The research is conducted for 87 developing countries between the years 1980 and 2010. Contrary to most previous research that has used aggregate country-level data for FLFPR, the hierarchical structure of our model allows our data to vary across time, countries as well as age-cohorts. The results show that trade has a positive effect on FLFPR but this effect only appears when average years of education for women is included together with trade as an interaction term in our regression analysis. When disaggregating trade into exports and imports, these measures of economic integration have a significant effect on FLFPR. Likewise there is an effect of export and imports when different measures of education are included as part in the interaction term, indicating the importance of female education for the relationship. While exports have a positive effect, imports have a negative effect on FLFPR. For the female employment shares an effect of trade as well as exports and imports can be seen in some cases, mostly when education is part of the regressions in the interaction term.}},
  author       = {{Lindgren, Cassandra and Sievers, Julian}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Importance of Education for the Relationship between Economic Integration and Female Labor Market Outcomes: A Developing Country Analysis}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}