Economic Development and Female Labour Force Participation: The Case of European Union Countries

Amaia Altuzarra, Catalina Gálvez-Gálvez and Ana González-Flores
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Catalina Gálvez-Gálvez: Faculty of Economic and Business, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Av. Lehendakari Agirre, 83, 48015 Bilbao, Spain
Ana González-Flores: Faculty of Economic and Business, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Av. Lehendakari Agirre, 83, 48015 Bilbao, Spain
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ana González Flores

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: In this paper, we studied the relationship between female labour force participation and economic development in the 28 countries of the European Union during the period 1990–2016. The analysis was carried out from two different viewpoints: first, we studied all the countries of the EU-28, and second, the evidence was disaggregated into two groups of countries: old (EU-15) and new (EU-13) member estates. The data used came from the World Bank open data repository and Eurostat. The methodology used consisted of the estimation of static (Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Fixed Effects (FE)) and dynamic (generalized moments model—GMM) models. Results for all European countries (EU-28) were consistent with the hypothesis which suggests the existence of a U-shaped relationship between female labour force participation and economic development. When the sample was broken down into groups, we found evidence that confirms the feminization hypothesis for the new countries of the EU, but not for the old ones.

Keywords: regional economic development; female labour force; education; static and dynamic models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:1962-:d:219388

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