A Look at the Factors That May Have Contributed To the Dutch Female Labor Force Participation

Women have been emerging on the labor market in the Netherlands. This is claimed to be the result of various variables. This paper discusses the factors that may have influenced the decision of Dutch women to participate in the labor force. Existing literature that discusses these variables is presented. Literature published before 2011 discusses the factor childcare and argues that the price of child care plays a role in the labor market participation decision made by females. However, since then authors have stated that this is not the case. Other factors that may have influenced the Dutch female labor force participation rate discussed in this thesis are the following: culture, the real hourly wage rate, fertility, growth, part-time female employment rate, full-time female employment rate, policy, educational background, technology and the reservation wage. Furthermore, estimations are made to indicate whether or not the presented literature is applicable to the Netherlands. The findings of this empirical analysis indicate that the only variable discussed that happens to have a significant effect on the Dutch female labor force participation rate is when it is the only variable included in an estimation, is the tax reforms. Moreover, in the full model the full time female employment rate seems to be the only variable to be of any significance. Furthermore, I examined whether the U-shaped relationship that existed between the labor force participation rate and the growth for Turkey, does hold for the Netherlands but due to insufficient data this cannot be seen completely.