Female Labour Force Participation in Saudi Arabia and its Determinants

Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 recognized female labor force participation as an important component for economic growth. This study investigates the relationship between female labor force participation rate, female tertiary school enrolment, female life expectancy and per capita income measured quarterly between 1991 and 2017. The study employs traditional unit root tests of Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Phillips-Perron (PP) and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) complemented by Zivot and Andrews (ZA) test. Furthermore, for robustness check, combined cointegration test as prescribed by Bayer and Hanck (2013) and Pesaran ARDL bound tests were performed. Toda-Yamamoto causality test examined the causality flow among the variables. The result posits all independent variables have positive significant effect on female labor force participation rate within Saudi Arabia; rendering a policy recommendation: higher female labor participation can be achieved through investment in female education, health sector and achieving economic growth.