The Relationship Between Fertility, Female Labor Force Participation and Economic Growth(A Comparative Study of Iran and G7 Countries)

The study of the effect of fertility and female labor force participation on economic growth is of particular significance. Thus in this paper, we examined the relationship between fertility, female labor force participation and economic growth using a comparative study between Iran and the G7 countries. For this purpose, we used the data from the overall fertility rate, the female labor force participation rate and the economic growth rate of the World Bank for the period 1990-2015. We employed the ARDL Bounds method and the panel constant effect method to estimate the Iran model and the model of G7 countries respectively.The results showed that with a one-percent increase in fertility, economic growth in Iran in the short and long term reduces by 0.177% and 0.166% respectively and in G7 countries it decreases by 0.012 %. The findings also indicated that a one-percent increase in the female labor force participation rate in Iran would increase 0.036% in the short run and 0.635% in the long run in economic growth. And such a change in economic growth in the G7 countries will affect 0.059% in a positive direction.