Does Trade Openness Boosts Gender Equality in Employment: A Case of D8 Countries

Abstract

The focal intension of the study was to examine the impact of trade openness on gender equality in employment, in D8 group which consists of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, during the time period of 1980 to 2012. Panel data estimation with Random Effect Model tested through the feasible generalized least squares method, which allows the estimation in presence of Heteroscadasticity and Autocorrelation problems. The results for our main model which consists of trade openness and gender equality in employment giving special focus on labor force participation rate show that trade openness is highly significant in posing the positive effect on the level of gender equality in employment. The findings show that coefficients of trade openness is significant at 1% in each equation with accurate positive sign for ratio of female to male labor force participation rates. These results hold true and consistent with earlier work and theories. Based upon the empirical analysis it can be concluded that trade liberalization policies are beneficial for the women in developing 8 countries. The overall conclusion drawn from study show that economic sector has most influential impact on social sector especially in case of developing countries.