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The IMF, labour market reform and women’s labour force participation

Saliha Metinsoy

International Labour Review2026https://doi.org/10.16995/ilr.23793article
AJG 2ABDC B
Weight
0.50

Abstract

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) claims that its labour market reform facilitates the entry of women into the labour force and improves their employment prospects. In this article, I use an instrumental variable analysis in a sample of 109 countries between the years 1990 and 2014 to show that IMF-sponsored labour market reforms reduce female labour force participation, primarily by lowering wages and thus diminishing incentives for women to work. Lower firing costs, conversely, support women’s entry into the labour force in the short term, with unclear long-term implications. These findings have important implications for global efforts aimed at gender equality.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.16995/ilr.23793

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@article{saliha2026,
  title        = {{The IMF, labour market reform and women’s labour force participation}},
  author       = {Saliha Metinsoy},
  journal      = {International Labour Review},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.16995/ilr.23793},
}

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The IMF, labour market reform and women’s labour force participation

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.