Development of womenʹʹs human capital and its impact on economic growth and total factor productivity: A case study of selected OECD countries

Experiences of developed countries and various studies in the context of economic growth of developing countries have shown that economic growth is not only explained by physical capital and labor force but also, and more importantly, by human capital. The later variable should be entered, as a major determinant, in the endogenous growth model. With the concern of important role of human capital in this research, the primary objective of this paper is to explore the effect of gender discrimination of human capital on economic growth and factor productivity in Iran and the selected OECD countries. More specifically, to indicate the economic capability of educated females, we use data of the considered countries over the period 1974-2008, to estimate the relevant models of growth and productivity. The implication is to compare the empirical results obtained for Iran and the selected developed countries.