The Relationship Between Female Labor Force Participation and Labor Productivity: Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

We examine the relationship between various indicators of female labor force participation and labor productivity. We test the hypothesis that labor productivity boosts as the female employment increases by exploiting a panel data set including the period 1985 to 2010 and 111 countries and using three labor productivity indicators and three female labor force participation indicators. We identified a positive correlation between female labor force participation indicators and labor productivity. This finding is statistically significant and valid for three different productivity indicators and three different female labor force participation indicators. Thus, the results suggest that female labor force participation increases labor productivity, controlling for other factors that may contribute to labor productivity.