Can participation in global value chains improve female labor force participation? A firm-level empirical investigation

The potential impact of global value chains (GVCs) on gender outcomes in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) remains an important but relatively understudied topic. Using rich firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys for a panel of 32 EMDEs from 2006 to 2020, we empirically tackle the following question: How is GVC participation by firms associated with female labor force participation? After employing a propensity score matching estimator to account for self-selection bias and using an instrumental variable estimator to address simultaneity bias, our findings highlight that a firm participating in a GVC is 3 to 7% more likely to employ female workers. We also find that within the sample of firms that provide on-the-job training to its workers, GVC firms are nearly 3% more likely to employ female workers compared to other firms. Finally, our results also establish that the positive association between GVC integration and female employment is more prominent in labor-intensive industries.