Fair Play: More Equal Laws Boost Female Labor Force Participation
Staff Discussion Notes, February 23, 2015
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Christian Gonzales, Sonali Jain-Chandra, Kalpana Kochhar, Monique Newiak
- Published: February 23, 2015
- Series: Staff Discussion Notes
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781498354424.006
Overview and purpose
- Examines the effect of gender-based legal restrictions and other policy choices and demographic characteristics on female labor force participation.
- Uses a large and novel panel data set of gender-related legal restrictions.
- Aims to inform policy by identifying legal and regulatory obstacles that reduce women's economic activity while not rendering judgments on countries’ broadly accepted cultural and religious norms.
Principal findings
- Restrictions on women’s rights to inheritance and property are strongly associated with larger gender gaps in labor force participation.
- Legal impediments to undertaking economic activities—such as opening a bank account or freely pursuing a profession—are strongly associated with larger gender gaps in labor force participation.
- These legal restrictions have a significant additional impact on female labor force participation over and above the effects of demographic characteristics and policies.
- In many cases, the gender gaps caused by these restrictions also have macro-critical effects in terms of an impact on GDP.
Policy implications and recommendations
- It would be beneficial to level the playing field by removing obstacles that prevent women from becoming economically active if they choose to do so.
- Recommendation emphasizes equal opportunities rather than making judgments about cultural or religious norms.
Subject tags and keywords
- Subject: Gender, Gender diversity, Gender inequality, Labor, Labor force participation, Legal support in revenue administration, Revenue administration, Women
- Keywords: female labor force participation, Gender diversity, gender equity, Gender inequality, Global, inheritance right, labor force, labor force participation, Labor force participation, legal rights, Legal support in revenue administration, Middle East, North Africa, OECD country sample, participation gap, policy conclusion, Policy recommendation, SDN, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Women
Source: Staff Discussion Note "Fair Play: More Equal Laws Boost Female Labor Force Participation", Staff Discussion Notes No. 2015/002.