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Fertility and the Puzzle of Female Employment in the Middle East

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  • Majbouri, Mahdi

    (Babson College)

Abstract

Female labor force participation rates across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have remained low for over four decades, despite the fact that in the same period, women's education rapidly increased and fertility rates substantially decreased. This surprising phenomenon has remained a puzzle. This study tries to provide a better understanding of this puzzle by testing whether there is a causal impact of the number of children on mother's labor supply. It uses twins at first birth as an instrumental variable to estimate the causal impact of fertility on participation of mothers in the labor market, free of bias. It finds that having more children does not reduce women's employment. The paper discusses the implications of this interesting result in understanding the puzzle of female participation in MENA and in designing policies to increase women's work.

Suggested Citation

  • Majbouri, Mahdi, 2018. "Fertility and the Puzzle of Female Employment in the Middle East," IZA Discussion Papers 11322, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11322
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    1. repec:zbw:bofitp:2021_007 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. 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.
    3. Yu, Haiyue & Cao, Jin & Kang, Shulong, 2021. "Who cares : Deciphering China’s female employment paradox," BOFIT Discussion Papers 7/2021, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    4. Mahdi Majbouri, 2017. "Oil, Laws, and Female Labor Force Participation," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 23(1), pages 91-106, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    female labor force participation; fertility; instrumental variable; Middle East and North Africa; twins;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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