女性勞動參與率是衡量一國經濟發展的重要指標。本文從經濟結構的轉變觀察女性勞動參與率，利用世界銀行的世界發展指標資料庫，觀察1990年至2016年共172個國家的整體趨勢。本文的實證結果發現，在全部國家的樣本估計之下，女性勞動參與率在農業發展階段時為負，在工業發展階段時為正，在服務業發展階段時為負，與過去文獻所得到U型曲線的「負正正」結果不同。我們進一步依經濟狀況分為高中低所得國家，高所得國家與OECD國家的估計結果與文獻的U型曲線「負正正」結果一致，在中所得國家與低所得國家的估計結果則是「負正負」。由此可以推論女性在中低所得國家有關鍵性的勞動角色，建議這些國家的政府在政策上可強化制訂與女性就業相關的保障與福利政策，以此提高女性投入就業市場的意願，促進經濟發展。

The female labor force participation rate is an important indicator to measure a country’s econom-ic development. This study observes the female labor force participation rate from the perspective of the transformation of the economic structure and uses the World Bank’s world development indicators database to observe the overall trend of 172 countries from 1990 to 2016. The empiri-cal results of this study find that, under the estimates of all countries, the female labor force par-ticipation rate has negative trend in the agricultural development stage, positive trend in the in-dustrial development stage, and negative trend in the service industry development stage, which is inconsistent with the past literature. We further divide the countries into high, medium and low-income countries according to their economic status. The estimated results of high-income countries and OECD countries are consistent with the “negative, positive and positive” results in the literature, while the estimated results of middle-income countries and low-income countries are “negative, positive and negative.” According, it can be inferred that women have a key labor role in low- and middle-income countries. It is suggested that the governments of these countries can strengthen the formulation of security and welfare policies related to women's employment, so as to increase women’s willingness to enter the job market and promote economic develop-ment.

1. 前言	1
2. 文獻回顧	2
3. 資料與方法	4
3.1 模型設定	4
3.2 資料來源	5
4. 實證結果	10
5. 結論與建議	17
參考文獻	18
附錄	19
附表1: 高所得國家列表	19
附表2: 中所得國家列表	21
附表3: 低所得國家列表	23

表目錄
表 1: 各項變數敘述統計量	8
表 2: 國家樣本	9
表 3: 全部樣本的估計結果	11
表 4: 全部樣本的估計結果：2001-2016	12
表 5: 高所得國家的估計結果	13
表 6: 中所得國家的估計結果	14
表 7: 低所得國家的估計結果	15
表 8: OECD國家的估計結果	16

Cerrutti, M. (2000). Economic Reform, Structural Adjustment and Female Labor Force Participation in Buenos Aires, Argentina. World Development, 28(5), 879-891. 
Dogan, B., Akyuz, M. (2017). Female Labor Force Participation Rate and Economic Growth in the Framework of Kuznets Curve: Evidence from Turkey. Review of Economic and Business Studies, 10(1), 33-54.
Henry, H. (2011). U-Shaped Female Labor Participation with Economic Develop-ment: Some Panel Data Evidence. Economics Letters, 110(2), 140-142.
Lechman, E., Kaur, H. (2015). Economic Growth and Female Labor Force Participa-tion – Verifying the U-Feminization Hypothesis. New Evidence for 162 Coun-tries over the Period 1990-2012. Economics and Sociology, 8(1), 246-257. 
Norris, M.E. (1992). The Impact of Development on Women: A Specific-Factors Analysis. Journal of Development Economics, 38(1), 183-201.
Olivetti, C. (2013). The Female Labor Force and Long-Run Development: The Ameri-can Experience In Comparative Perspective. NBER Working Paper, No.19131. 
Paolo,V.( 2014). Economic Development and Female Labor Participation in the Mid-dle East and North Africa: A Test of the U-Shape Hypothesis. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6927. World Bank.
Psacharopoulos, G., Tzannatos, Z. (1989). Female Labor Force Participation: An In-ternational Perspective. The World Bank Research Observer, 4(2), 187-201. 
Santosh, M., Jajati, K.P. (2017) Why is the Labour Force Participation of Women De-clining in India? World Development, 2017, 98(C), 360-380 
Tsani, S., Paroussos, L., Fragiadakis, C., Charalambidis, I., Cpros, P. (2013). Female Labour Force Participation and Economic Growth in the South Mediterranean Countries. Economics Letters, 120(2), 323-328