IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION, ECONOMIC GROWTH AND  BIRTH RATE ON FEMALE LABOR FORCE: EVIDENCE FROM  KAZAKHSTAN

Tolkyn Kakizhanova; Kansulu Utepkaliyeva; Saule Zeinolla; Asel Aben; Guliya Ilyashova

doi:10.2478/eoik-2025-0032

Authors

Tolkyn Kakizhanova Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2475-0573
Kansulu Utepkaliyeva Atyrau University named after Kh. Dosmukhamedov, Atyrau, Kazakhstan
Saule Zeinolla Kazakh-German University, Almaty, Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9504-9629
Asel Aben KazISS under the President of Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana, Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2594-4940
Guliya Ilyashova Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2661-0328

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/eoik-2025-0032

Keywords:

female employment, economic growth, birth rate, digitalization, ARDL

Abstract

The purpose of the research work is to determine impact of the eco nomic growth, digitization indicators and birth rate on female labor force in the Kazakhstan. For this purpose, Autoregressive Distrib uted Lag (ARDL) method was used. Data were obtained from the WDI website for period 1994–2022. Individuals using internet, Mo bile cellular subscriptions (MCS), ICT service exports were taken as indicators of digitalization, and GDP growth was taken as indicator of economic growth. As a result of ARDL model, Internet users are negatively linked to the female labor force both in the short and in the long term. Mobile cellular subscriptions have a positive influ ence on the female labor force only in the short term, and however, showed its insignificance in the long term. ICT service export and GDP growth has a positive effect on the female labor force both in the short term and in the long term. Fertility rate has a positive effect on female labor force in the short and long term. Research work includes review of world literature and, based on this, an econometric model for Kazakhstan was created, and further presents proposals on how women’s employment can increase economic growth in Kazakhstan, also a comprehensive literature review and updated econometric mod el were developed. This research work carried can be used by other researchers for their regions of interest, and further recommendations can be considered in their case study.

References

Adaçay, F. R. & Yildiz, G. (2023). Microfinance as A Strategy for Alleviating Women’s Poverty in Turkey: An Analytical Study Focused on Eskisehir. Journal of Corporate Governance, Insurance, and Risk Management, 10(2), 140-158. https://doi.org/10.56578/jcgirm100204

Agostinelli, F. and Sorrenti, G. (2018). Money vs. time: family income, maternal labor supply, and child development. University of Zurich, Department of Economics, Working Paper, (273). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3102271

Altuzarra, A.; Gálvez-Gálvez, C.; González-Flores, A. (2021). Is Gender Inequality a Barrier to Economic Growth? A Panel Data Analysis of Developing Countries. Sustainability, 13(1): 367. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010367

Altuzarra, Amaia & Galvez, Catalina & González, Ana. (2019). Economic Development and Female Labour Force Participation: The Case of European Union Countries. Sustainability. 11. 1962. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11071962

Asongu, Simplice; Odhiambo, Nicholas M. (2018): ICT, financial access and gender inclusion in the formal economic sector: Evidence from Africa, AGDI Working Paper, No. WP/18/058, African Governance and Development Institute (AGDI), vol. 20(2), pages 45-65. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/204980/1/1664480560.pdf

Brewster, Karin & Rindfuss, Ronald. (2000). Fertility and Women’s Employment in Industrialized Nations. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 16. 271-96. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.271

Bustelo, Monserrat & Flabbi, Luca & Viollaz, Mariana. (2019). “The Gender Labor Market Gap in the Digital Economy,” IDB Publications (Working Papers) 9886, Inter-American Development Bank. http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0001941

Chen, Fan & Shi, Sheng & Chen, Wei. (2024). Internet Usage and Non-Farm Employment of Rural Labor: Micro-Survey Data from Rural China. Social Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11205-024-03363-2

Choi, S. et al. (2024), “Women’s employment and fertility in Korea: A literature review”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1825, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ac53879e-en

Christian Siegel, 2012. “Female Employment and Fertility - The Effects of Rising Female Wages,” CEP Discussion Papers dp1156, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1156.pdf

Cramer JC. (1980). Fertility and female employment: problems of causal direction. In American sociological review. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095117

Esencan, Ecem & Simsek, Burcin & Seli, Emre. (2021). Analysis of female demographics in the United States: life expectancy, education, employment, family building decisions, and fertility service utilization. Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Publish Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.1097/GCO.0000000000000704

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Sandra Tzvetkova and Max Roser (2024). Women’s Employment. Our Wold In Data. https://ourworldindata.org/female-labor-supply

Fluchtmann , J., V. van Veen and W. Adema (2023), “Fertility, employment and family policy: A cross-country panel analysis”, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers, No. 299, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/326844f0-en

Ganeshan, M K & .C, Vethirajan. (2021). Digital Skills to Enhance Womens Empowerment in India. 1. 32-40. https://www.ijcrsssl.com/papers/v1/i2/IJCRSSSLV1I20004.pdf

Genz, Sabrina & Schnabel, Claus. (2023). “Digitalization is not gender-neutral,” Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 230(C). 111256, ISSN 0165-1765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111256

Global Gender Gap Index (2024). Kusum Kali Pal, Kim Piaget, Saadia Zahidi, and Silja Baller. https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2024/

Goldin, Claudia (1994) Labour Markets in Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: NBER (Working Paper Series on Historical Factors in Long Run Growth No. 58). https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ goldin/files/goldin_cehus.pdf

Heckman, J. J. (1978). A Partial Survey of Recent Research on The Labor Supply of Women. The American Economic Review, 68(2), 200–207. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1816689

Hilgeman, Christin & Butts, Carter. (2009). Women’s employment and feChristianrtility: A welfare regime paradox. Social science research. 38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2008.08.005

Hirway, Indira & Jose, Sunny. (2011). Understanding Women’s Work Using Time-Use Statistics: The Case of India. Feminist Economics - FEM ECON. 17. 67-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/1354570 1.2011.622289

Huseyn, A., & Abasova, Y. (2024). Ecological Entrepreneurship: Empirical Research on the Sustainable Development of Ecotourism in Azerbaijan. Collection of papers new economy, 2, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.61432/CPNE0201001h

ILO (2021) World Employment and Social Outlook 2021: The Role of Digital Platforms in Transforming the World of Work, Geneva: ILO. https://www.ilo.org/publications/flagship-reports/role-digital-labour-platforms-transforming-world-work

International Labor Organization (ILO) (2022). The Gender Gap in Employment: What’s Holding Women Back? https://www.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Employment/barriers-women#unemployed-vulnerable/labour-force International Labour Organization (ILO) (2024). “ILO Modelled Estimates and Projections database

(ILOEST)” ILOSTAT. Accessed February 06, 2024. https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/

Jahan, Nushrat & Zhou, Yixiao. (2024). Covid-19 and digital inclusion: Impact on employment. Journal of Digital Economy. 2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdec.2024.01.003

James, Al. (2022). Women in the gig economy: feminising ‘digital labour’. Work in the Global Economy. 2. https://doi.org/10.1332/273241721X16448410652000

Jayachandran, S. (2021) Social Norms as a Barrier to Women’s Employment in Developing Countries. IMF Econ Rev 69, 576–595. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41308-021-00140-w

Jiang Q, Li Y, Si H. (2022) Digital Economy Development and the Urban–Rural Income Gap: Intensifying or Reducing. Land, 11(11), 1980. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11111980

Khalid, Nooreen & Zafar, Naeem. (2012). Economic Growth-Female Labour Force Participation Nexus: An Empirical Evidence for Pakistan. Pakistan Development Review. 4. 565-585. https://doi.org/10.30541/v51i4IIpp.565-586

Khairunnisa, A., Astuti, C. D., & Hussein, M. A. (2024). The Influence of Board Diversity and Environmental Committees on Carbon Emission Disclosures in Southeast Asian Corporations. Journal of Green Economy and Low-Carbon Development, 3(1), 26-35. https://doi.org/10.56578/jgelcd030103

Kredina, Anna & Vasa, Laszlo & Nurgaliyeva, K.. (2023). Analysis of the Gender Segregation of Labor in Higher Education of Kazakhstan: Regional Aspect. Economics: the strategy and practice. 18. 227-240. https://doi.org/10.51176/1997-9967-2023-1-227-240

Lechman, Ewa & Kaur, Harleen. (2015). Economic growth and female labor force participation – verifying the U-feminization hypothesis. New evidence for 162 countries over the period 1990-2012. Economics & Sociology. 8. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789X.2015/8-1/19

Lu, Jing & Xiao, Qinglan & Wang, Taoxuan. (2023). Does the digital economy generate a gender divdend for female employment? Evidence from China. Telecommunications Policy. 47. https://doi.org/102545. 10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102545

Mammen, Kristin & Paxson, Christina. (2000). Women’s Work and Economic Development. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 14. 141-164. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.14.4.141

Mastilo, Z., Štilić, A., Gligović, D., & Puška, A. (2024). Assessing the banking sector of Bosnia and Herze govina: An analysis of financial indicators through the MEREC and MARCOS methods. Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, 13(1), 167–197. https://doi.org/10.2478/jcbtp-2024-0008

Meurs, Mieke & Nugmanova, Maigul & Salimzhanova, Aizhan & Marvin, Stevie. (2021). Gender Regime and Women’s Employment in Kazakhstan. Comparative Economic Studies. 63. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41294-021-00173-0

Mubarakov, Y., Bordiyanu, I., & Nurekenova, E. (2024). The Role of Digital Technologies in Promoting Gender Equality in Kazakhstan. Eurasian Journal of Economic and Business Studies, 68(3), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.47703/ejebs.v68i3.409

Rani, U., Castel-Branco, R., Satija, S., & Nayar, M. (2022). Women, work, and the digital economy. Gender & Development, 30(3), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2151729

Rodgers, Yana. (2010). Woman’s Role in Economic Development. Ester Boserup. London: Earth scan 1970. With a new introduction by Nazneen Kanji, Su Fei Tan, and Camilla Toulmin (reprinted 2007).. International Journal of Social Economics. 37. 339-340. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068291011025282

Sabree, M. & Mustafa, M. M. (2023). Importance and Role of Live Projects in Architectural Education Using a Descriptive and Analytical Approach. Education Science and Management, 1(1), 7-18. https://doi.org/10.56578/esm010102

Sanjukta , Chaudhuri (2010) Women’s Empowerment in South Asia and Southeast Asia: A Comparative Analysis. University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19686/1/

Saraceno, Chiara & Keck, Wolfgang. (2010). Can we identify intergenerational policy regimes in Europe?. European Societies - EUR SOC. 12. 675-696. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2010.483006

Shen Z, Zhao Z, Ren Q and Yan M (2022) Female Off-Farm Employment and Fertility Timing in Rural China. Front. Public Health 10:790436. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.790436

Shuangshuang, Yu & Zhu, Wenzhong & Aparcana, Sergio & Muda, Iskandar. (2023). The impact of education and digitalization on female labour force participation in BRICS: an advanced panel data analysis. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 10. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02020-2

Smith-Lovin, L., & Tickamyer, A. R. (1981). Fertility and patterns of labor force participation among married women. Biodemography and Social Biology, 28(1-2), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/19485565.1981.9988444

Stycos, J. M., & Weller, R. H. (1967). Female working roles and fertility. Demography, 4(1), 210–217. https://doi.org/10.2307/2060362

Sulaiman, N., Muhamad Bustaman, N. F., & Tang, C. F. (2023). Economic growth and female labour force participation in an ageing society: evidence from Southeast Asia. Applied Economics, 56(37), 4481–4491. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2023.2212964

UN WOMEN (2024). Europe and Central Asia. https://eca.unwomen.org/en/where-weare/kazakhstan#:~:text=In%20addition%2C%20the%20Constitution%20of,on%20the%20basis%20 of%20gender

Van den Broeck G, Maertens M (2015) Female Employment Reduces Fertility in Rural Senegal. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0122086. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0122086

Verick, Sher (2018): Female labor force participation and development, IZA World of Labor, ISSN 2054-9571, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn, https://doi.org/10.15185/izawol.87.v2

Vlasenko, T. (2023). Dimensions of the Analysis of the Organizational Culture of Multinational Companies. Collection of papers new economy, 1, 110-125. https://doi.org/10.61432/CPNE0101110v

Xiao, X., Yu, M., Liu, H., & Zhao, Q. (2022). How Does Financial Literacy Affect Digital Entrepreneurship Willingness and Behavior—Evidence from Chinese Villagers’ Participation in Entrepreneurship. Sustainability, 14(21), 14103. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114103

Ye, Rendao & Cai, Xinya. (2024). Digital Transformation, Gender Discrimination, and Female Employment. Systems. 12. 162. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems12050162

Yuanchen Yang & Mr. Manuk Ghazanchyan & Silvia Granados-Ibarra & Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza. (2024). “Digitalization and Employment Gender Gaps During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean,” IMF Working Papers 2024/012, International Monetary Fund. wpiea2024012-print-pdf.pdf

Zhang, H., Yang, Y., & Sun, S. (2024). It is not a vacation of leisure: The effect of maternity-leave stigma on fertility intentions in China. Acta psychologica, 248, 104413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104413