Women Promotion in Formal Wage Employment and Improving GDP Per Capita in Africa

Over the past two decades, issues related to solid gender disparities have gained prominence in the labor market in developing countries. Previous studies have addressed the issue of women's discrimination in terms of the gender pay gap without addressing the real impact of women's promotion to formal employment on economic growth. This study examines the effect of women's advancement in formal jobs on GDP per capita.. To examine this relationship in sufficient depth, we used data from 40 African countries from 2000 to 2019 issued from the World Bank database, and we used Dumitrescu and Hurlin's (2012) Granger causality testing procedure and the GMM model. Results show a causal relationship between the labor force, investment, human development index, trade openness and the proportion of women in formal wage work, and the GDP per capita of African countries. Results of the GMM model show that investment, trade openness and the proportion of women in formal work have positive and significant effects on GDP per capita. Regarding policy implications, African countries should invest more, develop regional integration, and promote women's formal wage employment for sustainable and inclusive development.