Assessing the Effect of Gender Equality before the Law on Female Labor Participation and GDP per capita in Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic

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Date
Mar 2021
Women's participation in the labor market in Central America is low for the international standard. Increase such participation is on the agenda of many policymakers who want to improve women's access to quality employment. In this paper, we use data from Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic to assess whether gender equality in the law helps increasing women's participation in the labor force and, therefore, boosts GDP per capita. The study is based on two econometric methodologies to evaluate distinct aspects of the economic mechanism.