What Can Boost Female Labor Force Participation in Asia?

March 16, 2015

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Format: Chicago

Yuko Kinoshita, and Fang Guo. What Can Boost Female Labor Force Participation in Asia?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2015) accessed April 14, 2025

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Both Japan and Korea are trying to boost female labor force participation (FLFP) as they face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. Though FLFP has generally been on a rising trend, the female labor force in both countries is skewed towards non-regular employment despite women’s high education levels. This paper empirically examines what helps Japan and Korea to increase FLFP by type (i.e., regular vs. non-regular employment), using the SVAR model. In so doing, we compare these two Asian countries with two Nordic countries Norway and Finland. The main findings are: (i) child cash allowances tend to reduce the proportion of regular female employment in Japan and Korea, (ii) the persistent gender wage gap encourages more non-regular employment, (iii) a greater proportion of regular female employment is associated with higher fertility, and (iv) there is a need for more public spending on childcare for age 6-11 in Japan and Korea to help women continue to work.

Subject: Employment, Gender, Gender inequality, Labor, Labor force, Women

Keywords: Asia and Pacific, Country, Employment, Female labor force participation, Fertility, Gender inequality, Impulse response, Japan, Labor force, Labor force, Labor market duality, Nordic country, Seniority wage feature, Wage, Wage gap, Women, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

39
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2015/056
Stock No:

WPIEA2015056
ISBN:

9781498329750
ISSN:

1018-5941

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