Labor Market Regulations and Female Labor Force Participation

How do Labor Market Regulations affect female labor force participation? Since this question has received shockingly little attention from economists, the objective of this chapter is to try to bring together the main elements needed to address it. First, the chapter analyses trends over time in female labor force participation and labor regulations, exploiting differences across regions and levels of development in order to distill some key stylized facts. Second, the chapter identifies and discusses the relevant theoretical work. Third, it takes stock of the various related empirical literatures stressing heterogeneity, dynamics, complexity, and enforcement dimensions of the relationship between labor regulations and female labor force participation. The chapter concludes with various suggestions for future research.