Level of Education and Female Labor Force Participation in Burkina Faso

Pouirketa Rita Nikiema, Université Norbert Zongo

Female labor force participation has gained the interest of development economists and researchers these last three decades. The paper seeks to analyze the link between female labor force participation and education level. Data for this paper come from the 2018/2019 Harmonized Survey on Households Living Standards (EHCVM). Using a logit model, the results reveal that after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors, a negative relationship between level of education and female labor force participation. Further, using years of schooling, results suggest a threshold effect showing that education matters only at higher level. Higher degree of education reduces the probability of being on labor force. However, literacy has a positive effect on labor force participation. The study suggests policies that ensure the sustainability of education attainment and promoting labor market opportunities through investments in education and training, and improvement of job-matching process.