The role of women in improving the business environment (Case study: Iran and the selected developing countries)

An indication of the development of any society is the business which is set up and managed by women entrepreneurs. Women's participation in economic activities has a key role not only in the development of women's capabilities and skills, but also in economic and social development. In this paper, the impact of women population, man population, income and inflation on the business environment index were studied for the 7 selected developing countries (inclouding Iran) during the period 2006 to 2013. The empirical results from employing panel cointegration method with Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) technique show that men and women population have a positive impact on the business environment index. This means that women alongside men play a significant role in improving the business environment; however, the impact of the female population is smaller than the male population, which is entirely consistent with the country's business environment.The female population plays a key role in the business environment of Iranian economy.