IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/rmeecf/v11y2015i1p1-23n4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Female Labor Force Participation in Iran: A Structural Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Majbouri Mahdi

    (Babson College, 231 Forst St., Wellesley, Massachusetts 02457, USA)

Abstract

Low female labor force participation (FLFP) rate in Iran, at the time that women’s education has been rising and their fertility rates have been falling, has remained a puzzle. By estimating elasticities of participation and hours with respect to wages (the extensive and intensive margins), this paper tries to shed some light on this puzzle. Using a structural estimation and controlling for selection, it depicts that the elasticity of women’s participation in the labor force with respect to wages is quite large, especially for married women. Based on this, one may argue that women’s participation is very sensitive to wages. But this is not consistent with the stylized facts about FLFP in Iran. The plausible implication of such elasticities, however, is that non-participating women have potential wages close to the wages of those who participate. Therefore, lower potential wages cannot be the factor that strongly dissuades women from participation. Instead, anticipated factors, such as labor market institutions and preferences, could be the underlying force hindering women from participation. The low FLFP rate can be explained better in light of these findings. The implications for policy and research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Majbouri Mahdi, 2015. "Female Labor Force Participation in Iran: A Structural Analysis," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:rmeecf:v:11:y:2015:i:1:p:1-23:n:4
    DOI: 10.1515/rmeef-2014-0042
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/rmeef-2014-0042
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/rmeef-2014-0042?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hadi Salehi Esfahani & Parastoo Shajari, 2012. "Gender, Education, Family Structure, And The Allocation Of Labor In Iran," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 1250008-121, January.
    2. Potrafke, Niklas & Ursprung, Heinrich W., 2012. "Globalization and gender equality in the course of development," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 399-413.
    3. Daniel Egel & Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, 2010. "Youth Transitions To Employment And Marriage In Iran: Evidence From The School To Work Transition Survey," Middle East Development Journal (MEDJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(01), pages 89-120.
    4. Sahn, David E. & Stifel, David C., 2000. "Poverty Comparisons Over Time and Across Countries in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2123-2155, December.
    5. Daniel Egel & Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, 2010. "Youth Transitions to Employment and Marriage in Iran," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 89-120, January.
    6. Witte Mark David, 2011. "Female Labor, Western Culture and Growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 20-31, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mahdi Majbouri, 2019. "Twins, family size and female labour force participation in Iran," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 387-397, January.
    2. Mahdi Majbouri & Sanaz Fesharaki, 2019. "Iran’s Multi-ethnic Mosaic: A 23-Year Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 831-859, October.
    3. Firat Demir & Saleh S. Tabrizy, 2022. "Gendered effects of sanctions on manufacturing employment: Evidence from Iran," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 2040-2069, November.
    4. Dario Laudati & M. Hashem Pesaran, 2023. "Identifying the effects of sanctions on the Iranian economy using newspaper coverage," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 271-294, April.
    5. Elham Taheri & Fatma Güven Lisaniler & Cem Payaslioğlu, 2021. "Female Labour Force Participation: What Prevents Sustainable Development Goals from Being Realised in Iran?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, October.
    6. Sanaz Fesharaki & Mahdi Majbouri, 2016. "Iran's multi-ethnic mosaic," WIDER Working Paper Series 117, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hau-Lin Tam & Edward Asamoah & Angus Yuk-Fung Chan, 2021. "Developing Social Entrepreneurship as an Intervention to Enhance Disadvantaged Young People’s Sense of Self-Worth and Career Competence in Hong Kong," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(6), pages 2497-2526, December.
    2. Shireen AlAzzawi & Vladimir Hlasny, 2020. "Vulnerable employment of Egyptian, Jordanian, and Tunisian youth: Trends and determinants," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-166, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Pieters, Janneke, 2013. "Youth Employment in Developing Countries," IZA Research Reports 58, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Firat Demir & Saleh S. Tabrizy, 2022. "Gendered effects of sanctions on manufacturing employment: Evidence from Iran," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 2040-2069, November.
    5. Caroline Krafft & Ragui Assaad, 2020. "Employment’s Role in Enabling and Constraining Marriage in the Middle East and North Africa," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2297-2325, December.
    6. Akbar Aghajanian & Sajede Vaezzade & Javad Afshar Kohan & Vaida Thompson, 2018. "Recent Trends of Marriage in Iran," The Open Family Studies Journal, Bentham Open, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, March.
    7. Francesca Marchetta & David E. Sahn, 2016. "The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(2), pages 369-403.
    8. Niklas Potrafke, 2016. "Policies against human trafficking: the role of religion and political institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 353-386, November.
    9. Diana K. L. Ngo & Luc Christiaensen, 2019. "The Performance Of A Consumption Augmented Asset Index In Ranking Households And Identifying The Poor," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 804-833, December.
    10. Gil Avnimelech & Yaron Zelekha, 2023. "Religion and the gender gap in entrepreneurship," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 629-665, June.
    11. Perge, Emilie & McKay, Andy, 2016. "Forest clearing, livelihood strategies and welfare: Evidence from the Tsimane' in Bolivia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 112-124.
    12. Dixon, Jenna & Luginaah, Isaac & Mkandawire, Paul, 2014. "The National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana's Upper West Region: A gendered perspective of insurance acquisition in a resource-poor setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 103-112.
    13. Marlous Milliano & Ilze Plavgo, 2018. "Analysing Multidimensional Child Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Findings Using an International Comparative Approach," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 805-833, June.
    14. Andy McKay & Emilie Perge, 2013. "How Strong is the Evidence for the Existence of Poverty Traps? A Multicountry Assessment," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(7), pages 877-897, July.
    15. David Stifel & Luc Christiaensen, 2007. "Tracking Poverty Over Time in the Absence of Comparable Consumption Data," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 21(2), pages 317-341, June.
    16. Stanley Sharaunga, 2019. "The Effectiveness of Women's Skills Development to Household Poverty Reduction: The Case of Msinga Rural Areas," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1-2), pages 73-98, July.
    17. Abebe Shimeles & Mthuli Ncube, 2015. "The Making of the Middle-Class in Africa: Evidence from DHS Data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 178-193, February.
    18. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Sahn, David & Younger, Stephen D., 2003. "Polarization: Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons," Cahiers de recherche 0304, CIRPEE.
    19. Janina Isabel Steinert & Lucie Dale Cluver & G. J. Melendez-Torres & Sebastian Vollmer, 2018. "One Size Fits All? The Validity of a Composite Poverty Index Across Urban and Rural Households in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 51-72, February.
    20. Sagarika Dey & Ritumani Haloi, 2019. "Assets, Rural Livelihood Strategies and Welfare Outcomes: A Case Study from South Assam, India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 595-620, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:rmeecf:v:11:y:2015:i:1:p:1-23:n:4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.