Women's Economic Participation and Fertility Rate in Iran's Provinces: Application of Robust Regression in Analysis of Variance Heterogeneity

One of the interesting topics in social sciences, especially in economics, is the discussion of women's economic participation. This research has investigated the effect of women's economic participation on the fertility rate in the provinces of Iran using robust regression. Due to the existence of variance heterogeneity, which was caused by outlying points in the observations, robust regression was used. The results of the S estimator indicate that the variables of literacy rate and life expectancy have a positive effect on the fertility rate. On the other hand, the variables of women's economic participation rate, mortality rate and urbanization rate have a negative and significant effect on the fertility rate. The results showed that it is necessary for the policy makers of the country to have a correct understanding of the factors affecting the fertility rate and the participation rate, including variables such as the literacy rate and life expectancy. Also, the participation of women should be provided in a way that does not prevent them from having children. On the other hand, considering the heterogeneity in the fertility of Iran provinces, the application of identical and centralized policies for all provinces in which the conditions of each province is not taken into account will not lead to efficient results.