Abstract

Abstract

Qatarization, a process to increase the number of Qatari nationals in the labor force, is considered one of the country top priorities to ensure its long-term economic development and security purpose. As 96 percent of Qatari men and 43 percent of Qatari women are currently in the labor force and women are more educated than men on average, it is clear that a significant increase in the labor force, especially in high skilled jobs, can only be achieved by increasing the participation of women in the labor force. It is therefore important to understand the factors that influence the decision of Qatari women to participate in the labor force. Using a nationally representative survey data and recent advances in the quantile regression technique, we analyze women's willingness to participate not only at the mean value (given by well known logistic regression) but also at its various quantiles. We found that the offer wage rate, age and education plays an important role in women decision to join the labor force. These factors have a positive effect on women's participation, but the effect varies across quantiles. The effects of marriage and having children, contrary to normal expectation, are not statistically significant, suggesting that once women enter the labor force they are not likely to exit because of marriage or children. We also discuss policy implications of the results to the Qatarization process.

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/content/papers/10.5339/qfarf.2010.AHO5
2010-12-13
2024-03-28
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References

  1. K. Le, Participation of women in Qatar's labor force, QFARF Proceedings, 2010, AHO5.
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http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/papers/10.5339/qfarf.2010.AHO5
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