Economic Growth and Female Labor Force Participation – Verifying the U - Feminiza - Tion Hypothesis . New Evidence for 162 Countries over the Period 1990

Th e paper contributes by providing new insights into the relationship between female labor force and economic growth in 162 world countries over the period 19902012. It was hypothesized that an analysis would reveal a U-shaped relationship between female labor force participation and economic growth. Th e analysis is run from two diff erent perspectives – in the fi rst, the relationship is examined for a sample encompassing 162 countries; and in the second – the evidence is disaggregated and the relationship is re-examined within four income-groups (low-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income and high-income). To examine these relationships, data on female labor force participation and per capita income are extracted from the World Development Indicators 2013 database, and the relationship is examined by deploying panel data analysis assuming non-linearity between variables. Th e main fi ndings support the hypothesis of the U-shaped relationship between female labor force participation and economic growth, however high cross-country variability on the fi eld is reported. Moreover, the U-shaped feminization hypothesis was not positively verifi ed in the case of low-income countries.