The Effect of Changing Gender Composition in the Labor Market on the Economic Growth of Syria Before and After War Using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model

Abstract

Some economists, such as Kuznets, believe that differences in the labor force in these countries can explain differences in the level of economic growth of countries. In every country, human capital and physical capital are complementary, and these two capitals together contribute to countries' economic growth and development. In recent years, women's participation in the economies of developed countries has increased dramatically. In a country like Syria, which has experienced war, there has also been an increase in women's economic participation. The important point that the present study focuses on is that this increase is not based on a regular economic policy and a change in the gender composition of the labor force but is itself a consequence of the war. Therefore, considering the importance of the concept of human capital in economic development and the above-mentioned event in the post-war Syrian economy, this study examines the effect of changes in the composition of the labor force on economic growth in Syria during the period 2000-2019 using data from the Syrian Statistics Center and the World Bank. Data analysis using the ARDL model shows that compared to men's physical capital, women's participation and the total number of employees have a positive and significant relationship with economic growth. However, the relationship between exports and imports and economic growth is insignificant.