CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Barin, Ehsan |
|---|---|
| Title | Can boosting labor force participation rate of females drive sustainable growth in MENA countries? |
| Summary | This thesis is trying to answer whether boosting labor force participation of females can drive sustainable economic growth in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. To do so, it utilizes a panel structural vector autoregression (Panel SVAR) methodology by analyzing macroeconomic data from 13 MENA countries in the period of 1994–2021. The estimated coefficients are belonging to variables include total and female labor force participation rates, real GDP growth, unemployment, investment, oil rents, inflation, and trade openness. Based on the results we can see that an exogenous shock to female labor force participation rate initially has a negative and significant effect on GDP growth, although this effect is dissolving over time. Impulse-Response Functions (IRFs) verify that labor force participation rate of females has short-term negative effect on GDP growth in MENA countries. On the other hands, Forecast Error Variance Decomposition (FEVD) shows that labor market participation rate of females shocks only explain small share of GDP growth fluctuations. These findings support labor market theories and suggesting that without sufficient job creation, increased labor supply may reduce wages and then productivity in the short-run which can lead to a negative effect on GDP growth in the whole economy. So, this thesis contributes to the labor economics literature by verifying theories via an evidence-based analysis of labor force participation rate of females' effect on GDP growth in MENA countries. Finally, the thesis also contributes to the literature by highlighting the complexities of labor market dynamics and the importance of balanced strategies for job creation in the economy. |
| Supervisor | Rátfai, Attila |
| Department | Economics MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/barin_ehsan.pdf |
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