Female labor force participation in Turkey: the role of skill premium and gender wage gap

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1505253 (Table of Contents)

In this study, I investigate the effects of skill premium, and gender wage gap on female labor force participation in Turkey. I examine in particular the answers to two questions, namely, how females' labor participation decisions would change if there were no gender wage gap and how it would be in the absence of female skill premium. I build a general equilibrium model populated by married households. Households differ by educational attainment levels of their members and they decide the labor supply of members and savings. I select parameter values so that the benchmark economy resembles features of the Turkish economy in 2006 in terms of gender wage gap, skill premium, tax structure, and female labor force participation across education groups and ages. In this thesis, I find that both changes in gender wage gap and female skill premium have substantial effects on the female labor force participation rate. The increase that occurs in female labor force participation after gender wage gap elimination and female skill premium elimination are 52.7% and 253.5% respectively. Furthermore, in both alternative economies the increase in female labor force participation rates have occurred due to a significant increase in the labor force participation rates of low-skilled females.