答辩时间：2026年5月18日上午11：00

答辩地点：首都经济学贸易大学华侨学院B214

答辩论文信息：

Name : Phyo Pont Pont Thu (菲尤) ,  Major : Applied Economics

Title : The Impact of Trade Openness on Women’s Employment in Myanmar: Evidence from the Industrial Sector

Dissertation Introduction

Myanmar’s transition from a closed economy to a more open trading system after 2011, followed by contraction after 2020, provides an important setting for studying how trade openness affects women’s employment. Although women make up about 85–90 percent of Myanmar’s garment factory workforce, this relationship has not been examined with a long-run econometric approach. The study focuses on industrial employment because it is directly tied to export demand and trade access, unlike agriculture and services, which are less affected by trade policy.

The analysis combines three perspectives: trade can increase female industrial jobs through export demand, foreign direct investment can reduce them through defeminisation, and rising household income can reduce women’s willingness to stay in low-wage factory work. Using 34 annual observations from 1991 to 2024, the study applies ARDL bounds testing, structural break analysis, and Difference-in-Differences to test whether the 2011 reforms changed the trade-employment link.

The findings show that trade openness has a positive long-run effect on women’s industrial employment, while FDI has a negative effect. After the 2011 reforms, the trade-employment link weakened because trade shifted toward more resource-based exports. Household income reduces women’s industrial employment, but female unemployment has no significant effect. Overall, the study gives the first sector-level long-run evidence on trade openness and women’s industrial employment in Myanmar and offers policy guidance for recovery.

Research achievements during the period of study

1.Female sectoral employment transition, trade openness, and economic growth , International Journal of Science and Business, May,2026

https://www.ijsab.com/jmr-volume-2-issue-1/8906

2.The impact of FDI inflows on Female unemployment in Myanmar, International Journal of Science and Business, May,2026

https://www.ijsab.com/jsr-volume-14-issue-1/8912