This paper uses all LFS data available for Morocco to study factors that could affect FLP. Unlike Verme (2014) which focused on the long-term determinants of participation, this paper focuses on the medium and short-term factors. For the medium term, we will use quarterly data between 1999 and 2013 and reproduce with these data the long-term equation typically used for studies of long-term determinants. For the short-term, we will focus on the panel component of the LFS covering the period 2007-2011. In this way, we should be able to bridge the long-term with the short-term analysis and provide a set of explanatory factors that range from individual and household factors to structural, seasonal and spatial factors.

One shortcoming of this work is the lack of earnings data. These data are not available from the Morocco LFS and this constrained our analysis to non-wage determinants of FLP. This is an important shortcoming of course because it is known from the literature that both females and males earnings and females reservations wages contribute to explain FLP. However, in emerging economies where markets are largely informal and/or suffer from sluggish labor demand earnings may play a less relevant role than in advanced and vibrant economies while household characteristics, education, location and cultural factors may play more important roles. In the absence of earnings and in view of the very scarce data and literature on FLP in the MENA region, this makes the study of non-wage determinants of FLP in Morocco an important step forward in filling these gaps.

The paper is organized as follows. The next section reviews some of the literature on female labor participation. Sections three and four present the models and data. Section four presents the results and section five concludes.

# **Non-wage determinants of female labor participation in emerging economies**

The literature on female labor participation (FLP) is vast and can be broadly divided into two blocks. The first block seeks the long-term and historic factors that determine FLP and has been largely led by Ester Boserup and Claudia Goldin. This block of the literature states that FLP should be understood in the context of economic development of nations. When economies experience economic transformation from agrarian to industrialized societies, the agricultural sector shrinks contributing to the reduction in FLP as the new jobs created in the new industrial sectors are mostly taken by men. But as economies continue to grow, female education expands, fertility rates decline, women acquire more control over household decisions and sectors such as services and manufacturing expand, FPRs start to increase again. This is what is known as the U- shape hypothesis (Goldin, 1995), the idea that, during the process of economic development and growth, FPR is U-shaped in GDP per capita.

The U-shape hypothesis has found numerous confirmations over the years (Boserup, 1970, Durand, 1975; Goldin, 1995, Psacharopoulos and Tzannatos, 1989, Mammen and Paxson, 2000, Tsani, 2013, Olivetti, 2013) and most of this literature traced a few key determinants of FPR pointing essentially to four sets of factors. The first is the economic transformation argument from agriculture to industry and services already illustrated. The second is the increase in female education, particularly secondary education, identified as the turning point for females to join the modern sectors. The third is long-term changes in the population structure, fertility rates in 3