The Nexus of Female Labour Force Participation, Economic Growth, Education and Fertility Rate: Empirical Evidence in Malaysia

Malaysia, a fast-growing developing country in Asia, has envisioned Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 to become a developed economy with highincome via sustainable and inclusive economic growth by the year 2030. To accomplish this vision, femalelabour participation isneeded as the femalepopulation constitutesalmost half of Malaysia’s total population. However, female labour participation rate iswaylower than Malaysia’s overall labour force participation rate.The relatively low female labour participation rate can be a barrier to Malaysia’s economic development and thus the realization of its goal of a high income nation.Therefore, this paper makes an attempt to examine empirically the long-run causal association amongfemale labour force participation, economic growth, education, and fertility rate. The interrelationships among the variables are examined using the bounds test and Toda-Yamamoto granger non-causality methodology. The result of the study indicates a strong evidence of long-run relationship among the variables. Besides, we have found asignificant inverted-U-shaped associationlinking the female labour force participationto the economic growthin Malaysia. The results of Granger causality tests further confirm that there is a strong evidence of bidirectional causality from education to economic growth as well as female labour participation. Besides, the results also show significant unidirectional causality from female labour force participation and fertility to economic growth.