On women participation and empowerment in international trade: Impact on trade margins in the MENA region

This paper investigates the contribution of female labor participation as well female ownership/management to trade margins using firm-level data for 18 manufacturing and services sectors in eight MENA countries for 2013. This topic is innovative, and critical for the MENA region where female participation in the export sector is shy, at a time the region is looking for new sources of competitiveness to boost its exports. Our results show that first, female labor participation has a positive a significant impact on both the probability of export and export volume, with the effect being independent of the size of the firm. Female labor participation matters in traditional sectors where the MENA region has a comparative advantage. Second, while the effect of female ownership or management is not significant on trade margins, female management/ownership exerts a positive effect on the probability of large firms to export. This positive effect is mainly driven by female ownership and not management, and thus sheds light on the potential importance of female empowerment in international trade. Third, the effect of some regulatory barriers on exports is more pronounced for a female-owned/managed firm, with respect to a men-owned/managed firm.