Corruption – Poverty Nexus: Evidence from Panel ARDL Approach for SAARC Countries

The article intends to investigate the relationship between corruption and poverty based on the panel data of SAARC countries over the period 1996–2019. We employed the panel ARDL of pooled mean group (PMG) technique to analyze the data and focus on capability poverty, using the human development index (HDI) as a proxy for poverty. The empirical findings of PMG of the ARDL model suggest that an increase in corruption score (COC) (i.e. decrease in corruption) and increase in women’s labor force participation rate (WLFPR) seem to have a significant impact either in eradicating poverty or increasing social welfare in the long run as well as in the short run. A random effect (RE) model also identified a significant positive relationship between corruption score and HDI, and WLFPR and HDI. A Dumitrescu-Hurlin pairwise panel Granger non-causality test detected a bilateral causality relationship between COC and HDI, and WLFPR and HDI, while unilateral causality ran from WLFPR to COC. The article contributes to examining the dynamics between corruption and poverty from the governance aspect, taking South Asia as a case study.

The marriage age U-shape

In this paper, I address the U-shaped dynamics (a decrease followed by an increase) in the age at first marriage during the twentieth century. First, I show that the U-shaped dynamics have been steeper in Western that in other countries. Second, I find that these dynamics in the West are strongly related to the post-World War II (WWII) economic growth. By contrast, in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries age of marriage was much less correlated across Western countries. I propose a simple model where age of marriage is a function of search frictions and married women's labor force participation. Both factors put together generate U-shaped dynamics as a result of an industrial boom that mimics the post-WWII Western economic development.

Strategy for Abolishing Barriers to Women Participation in Labor Force

<p>The female labor force participation rate has not moved from 50-55% in the last ten years, and this condition has been exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic. This study looks at the various challenges for women in entering the world of work, maintaining jobs and building careers, and what strategies stakeholders can take to remove various barriers to women's labor force participation. The strategic recommendations include affirmative actions and policies that could be taken by policy makers and companies to remove barriers to women's participation in the workforce. The study is based on literature reviews of various studies and surveys conducted by the ILO in 2010-2020, especially regarding women in the world of work.</p>

Women's Labor Force Participation and Economic Growth: Evidence from Transition Economies

Sustainable economic growth at national and global level depends on the significant participation of women in the labor force. Because women compose half of the world population in terms of human capital and labor. Despite the developments in recent years, there is still gender inequality in labor markets around the world and labor force participation rate of women is lower than men. There are many factors affecting the participation of women in the labor force in all developed and developing countries. The effect levels of these factors on the participation rate differ depending on the development levels of the countries. In this context, the role of women's education and labor force participation on development is an important issue especially for all developing country. Therefore, the aim of the study is to examine the relationship between women's labor force participation rates and economic growth in transition economies. For this purpose, the generalized method of moments, which is a dynamic panel data analysis technique, is applied in the study using data between 1995-2019. Analysis findings reveal that there is a U-shaped relationship between women's labor force participation rate and economic growth in transition economies competible with the literature. As a result, reducing gender inequality and increasing women's labor force participation rates positively affect economic growth, income inequality and social welfare, so it is great importance that policy practitioners create a comprehensive women's employment policy and ensure that women play an active role in the labor force.

Does Women’s Participation in Politics Matter for Economic Development in OIC-15? An Islamic Perspective

This study aims to empirically determine and analyze the role of women's participation in politics, female population growth, trade balance, and women's labor force participation in promoting economic development across 15 OIC countries during the 2006-2017 period, both in short- and long-run from an Islamic perspective. Using the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method, this study found that, in the short term, trade balance and women's labor force participation have promoted Islamic economic development. In contrast, women's participation has a negative effect on the economic development of OIC countries. In the long term, on the other hand, all variables have promoted Islamic economic development in OIC countries, except for the trade balance variable. These findings suggest that coordination and synergy for strengthening economic development among OIC countries need to be enhanced, focusing on women's role in politics, labor force, quality of population, and economic dimensions.JEL Classification: C33, F16, J16, O11, P48Ramdayani, S., Majid, M. S. A., & Suriani, S. (2021). Does Women's Participation in Politics Matter for Economic Development in OIC-15? An Islamic Perspective. Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi, 10 (2), 209-222. https://doi.org/10.15408/sjie.v10i2.20214.

Women's Participation in Labor Force in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A Review of Determinants and Impacts

Background: In the last few decades, there has been a significant increase in women's participation in gainful employment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This scooping review has primarily aimed at assessing the key determinants and effects of women's involvement in the labor force in SSA. Methods: The authors did the review based on 19 articles selected from PubMed and goggle search. The selection considered only those published in the last 15 years, conducted based on large sample from Sub-Saharan African countries, and those exclusively related to women’s Labor Force Participation (LFP). More than 80% of the reviewed studies (16 of the 19) employed a cross-sectional study design with quantitative approaches. Results: The review witnessed that women's labor force participation in SSA is determined by various individual, household, and community characteristics. Women with lower fertility, living in poor economic condition (low wealth quantiles), and those with above primary education were more likely to participate in gainful employment. Other demographic factors explaining why some women participate in the labor force more often than others include women's age, marital status, number of under-five children, household size, and headship. Among the community variables, living in areas with better infrastructure (transport and communication) increased the likelihood of women’s participation in gainful employment. Nearly all studies showed significant positive impacts of women's labor force participation on several domains of women's life and household well-being, such as on women's nutrition, childcare, and health service utilization. Conclusion: The review implies that despite concerns about some adverse impacts of women's participation in gainful employment (such as on childcare), most of the studies indicated positive effects of LFP on women's and children's health, nutrition, and overall household well-being in SSA.

Does Gender Climate Influence Climate Change? The Multidimensionality of Gender Equality and Its Countervailing Effects on the Carbon Intensity of Well-Being

The carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB) (a ratio measuring the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of life expectancy at birth) is an increasingly popular way to measure the ecological efficiency of nations. Although research demonstrates that economic development typically reduces this efficiency, little research has explored the extent to which social equality improves it. This study uses panel data for 70 nations between 1995 and 2013 to assess how various aspects of gender equality affect the ecological efficiency of nations. We estimate a series of Prais-Winsten regression models with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) to assess how increases in the percentage of women in parliament, expected years of education for women, and the percentage of women in the labor force independently affect CIWB. Our findings indicate that across all nations, increases in the percentage of women in parliament and expected years of schooling reduce CIWB; however, increases in the percentage of women in the labor force increase CIWB. Our results further show that the relationship between different dimensions of gender equality and CIWB differs between more developed and less developed nations. Finally, we find that increases in the number of women in parliament and women’s education attenuate the relationship between women’s labor force participation and CIWB. We discuss the variation in our results by reviewing relevant eco-gender literatures and feminist economics.

Contextual Effects on the Gendered Division of Housework: A Cross-Country and Cross-Time Analysis

Individuals who espouse an egalitarian gender ideology as well as economically independent women benefit from a more egalitarian division of housework. Although these two individual-level characteristics affect the gender division of housework, each suggests a different mechanism; the former is anchored within an economic logic and the latter within a cultural one. Using data of 25 countries from the 2002 and 2012 “Family and Changing Gender Roles” modules of the International Social Survey Program, we examine whether a country’s mean gender ideology and women’s labor force participation (WLFP) rate have a distinct contextual effect beyond these individual-level effects. We predict that the division of housework between married or cohabitating partners will be more egalitarian in countries with higher WLFP rates and in countries with more egalitarian attitudes, even after controlling for the two variables at the individual level. Given the cross-country convergence in WLFP, but not in gender ideology, we expect the effect of WLFP to decline over time and the effect of gender ideology to remain salient. Indeed, our multi-level analysis indicates that the net effect of WLFP, which was evident in 2002, had disappeared by 2012. By contrast, the net contextual effect of gender ideology, which was not significant in 2002, had become an important determinant of housework division by 2012. We conclude that further changes will depend on a country’s prevalent gender ideology because the equalizing effect of WLFP on the division of housework may have reached its limit.