Essays on labor market institutions, growth and gender inequality

The present dissertation aims to describe three essays related to labor market institutions, growth and gender inequality. Essay 1 addresses the impact of labor market institutions on economic growth. Using a quantitative study and considering the time and country-specific characteristics, I analyzed the role of labor market institutions in conventional growth models framework, by controlling state and policy variables. Growth is found to be strongly but negatively determined by labor tax rate, while weakly but positively by degree of centralization, benefit replacement rate, and union density. Moreover, analysis of interactions between labor market institutions are found to be crucial for policy concerns. The findings also suggest that more important is to consider how these taxes are being used. Essay 2 aims to explain that whether growth or sectoral growth can have impact on womens welfare. Complex relationship is observed based on type of countries and type and pattern of growth. Fertility is found to be a potential channel linking growth with womens welfare. Based on the separate analysis for OECD and non-OECD countries, it is suggested that growth does not automatically enhance womens welfare. So, when dealing with growth strategies, it is necessary to ensure that women benefit equally likely men from growth or sectoral growth. It is also suggested that along with growth pattern, cultural norms and peoples mindset could be important determinant for womens welfare. Essay 3 tests the prevailing theme of gender inequality related to test score performance. In some societies, it is considered that males performed better in math and females in verbal abilities and that this is natural. The aim is to look for the role of gender itself and other environmental factors in impacting students performance at the end of compulsory education in math, reading and math sub-scale domains. Analysis at this stage is important because it can have its impact in future selection of educational fields and careers. Analysis of test score performance shows that gender indeed impacts, as plain gender gap is found even after controlling for other environmental factors. However, it is found that there is a possibility to mitigate this gap through environmental factors where schooling or institutional impact is found to have a substantial impact. Among other environmental factors, role of highly educated mothers, full-time working mothers, public schools, more proportion of fully certified teachers, and improvement in role of females are proved to be decisive in improving females test performances in both reading and math.