The effect of the trade liberalization policy (with emphasis on the reduction of tariff barriers) on the employment rate of women in selected Islamic countries using a spatial approach Abstract

Abstract

Over the past three decades, many countries have implementedeconomic reforms that include trade liberalization policies and there is astrong interest in the gender impact of these reforms. On the other hand,trade liberalization determines the structure of employment, the extent ofpoverty, and the distribution of income and wages. The purpose of thispaper is to estimate the effect of trade liberalization on women'semployment using panel data from selected Islamic countries in theframework of a spatial econometric approach. The 1999 to2018 statisticswere used for this purpose. The results show that trade liberalization has adirect and significant impact, and tariff barriers have a significant andreverse impact on the employment of women in the Selected IslamicCountries. Also, the commercial liberalization of one country has had apositive effect on the employment of women in other countries. Thismeans that with the increasing commercial liberalization of each country,the average employment rate of women in other Selected IslamicCountries has increased.

Keywords

• spatial econometrics
• trade liberalization
• tariff barriers
• women'
• s employment rate