Does gender equality in labor participation bring equality? Evidence from developing and developed countries

The female labor force participation (FLFP) has a strong and significant disequalizing impact in at least three groups of developing countries, and relatively low initial participation levels, based on a macro- and micro-data comparison, whereas, in developed countries, both a cross-country comparison and a literature review have shown that the relationship is tendentially equalizing. Based on a decile-level data analysis in developing countries, we found that the FLFP showed higher levels of returns among top deciles compared to the lower ones. This evidence emphasizes the importance of developing policies to encourage participation among women belonging to lower deciles of the income distribution.