The Effects of Education and Marital Status on Women’s Labor Force Participation: A Regional Analysis of Turkey

Year 2017, Volume: 6 Issue: 3, 15 - 38, 01.09.2017

Yasemin Özerkek Yasemin Özbal

Abstract

Participation of women in the labor force is important for a country’s sustainable growth and development. The rate of female labor force participation in Turkey is far below those of developed countries. Furthermore, the rate differs across regions of the country. This study investigates the effects of educational level and marital status on women’s labor force participation in the years 2006 and 2016. The aim of the study is to examine the differences across regions and to see whether the results showed any change over the ten years. Toward this end, a probit-regression model is used, with micro-level data at NUTS2 level from the Turkish Household Labor Force Survey. The results point to greater probabilities of women’s participation in the workplace in many Turkish regions over the period, but at the same time there were rigid lower participation probabilities for women, despite the rising level of education (except for higher education), in certain regions. Furthermore, we find the
participation probability of Turkish women in the labor force to be higher if they have a Bachelor’s or higher degree.

Keywords

female labor force participation, regional analysis, Turkey

Thanks

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 19th National Economics Symposium of the Turkish Economic Association, Girne, KKTC, November 3-4, 2017.

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