The Impact of Renewable Energy on Women's Employment in Developing Countries

Abstract

Women's employment is one of the key pillars of sustainable development and inclusive economic growth; however, in many developing countries, women's participation in the labor market continues to face significant structural and institutional constraints. In this context, the expansion of renewable energy not only contributes to environmental sustainability but also has the potential to create new employment opportunities and enhance women's economic participation. This study aims to examine the impact of renewable energy consumption on female employment in developing countries. To this end, panel data for a sample of developing countries covering the period 2000–2022 are employed. After conducting panel unit root and cointegration tests, the long-run relationships are estimated using the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimator, while the short-run dynamics are analyzed through a Panel Error Correction Model (ECM) estimated using the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) approach. The empirical results reveal that renewable energy consumption has a positive and statistically significant effect on female employment in developing countries. In addition, GDP per capita and gross fixed capital formation contribute positively to female employment, whereas real wages exert a negative and statistically significant effect. The short-run findings further indicate that renewable energy consumption and economic growth promote female employment. Moreover, the negative and statistically significant coefficient of the error correction term confirms the existence of a stable long-run equilibrium relationship among the model variables. Overall, the findings suggest that the expansion of renewable energy, combined with appropriate investment and labor market policies, can play a crucial role in increasing female employment, reducing gender inequalities, and promoting sustainable development in developing countries.