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Female Employment in MENA’s Manufacturing Sector: The Implications of Firm-Related and National Factors

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  • Ali Fakih
  • Pascal L. Ghazalian

    (University of Lethbridge)

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has realized significant advances toward improving women’s well-being and social status over the last few decades. However, women’s employment rate in the MENA region remains one of the lowest in the world. This paper examines the implications of firm-related and national factors for female employment rates in manufacturing firms located in the MENA region. The empirical analysis is implemented for firm-level data derived from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys database. It uses fractional logit and alternative models to carry out the estimations for female overall employment rates and for female non-production employment rates. The results reveal significant implications of firm-related factors, such as private foreign ownership, exporting activities, firm size, and labor composition for female employment rates. They also show that national factors, such as economic development and gender equality, promote female employment rates. There are considerable differences between the estimated marginal effects for female overall employment rates and those for female non-production employment rates. This paper provides policy-makers with important directions to design strategies aiming at enhancing women’s economic opportunities and employment rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Fakih & Pascal L. Ghazalian, 2015. "Female Employment in MENA’s Manufacturing Sector: The Implications of Firm-Related and National Factors," Working Papers 917, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2015.
  • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:917
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ahmed, Salma & Feeny, Simon & Posso, Alberto, 2015. "What firm characteristics determine women’s employment in manufacturing? Evidence from Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 84492, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat & Robert McNown, 2018. "A synthetic cohort analysis of female labour supply: the case of Thailand," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(5), pages 527-544, January.
    4. Ahmad S. Haider & Saleh S. Olimy & Linda S. Al-Abbas, 2021. "Media Coverage of Syrian Female Refugees in Jordan and Lebanon," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440219, February.
    5. Abdallah Dah & Ali Fakih, 2016. "Decomposing Gender Wage Differentials Using Quantile Regression: Evidence from the Lebanese Banking Sector," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 22(2), pages 171-185, May.
    6. Fischer, Justina AV & Aydıner-Avşar, Nursel, 2015. "Are women in the MENA region really that different from women in Europe? Globalization, conservative values and female labor market participation," MPRA Paper 63800, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ali Fakih & Pascal L. Ghazalian, 2015. "What factors influence firm perceptions of labour market constraints to growth in the MENA region?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(8), pages 1181-1206, November.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J82 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Labor Force Composition

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