Impact of vulnerable employment on economic growth in ten developing economies using education as a moderator

This study investigates whether vulnerable employment constrains GDP growth and whether its effects are linear, distributionally homogeneous, or conditioned by human capital in ten developing and emerging economies. Using a balanced panel of 10 countries from 2000 to 2023, the analysis employs Quantile Panel data analysis. The results indicate that vulnerable employment exhibits no statistically significant linear association with GDP, but a significant negative and non-linear effect exists. It indicates monotonically decreasing nonlinear relationship. Quantile estimates show that this adverse effect is concentrated at the lower (25th) quantile of the income distribution, while remaining insignificant at higher quantiles, and the interaction with tertiary education is uniformly insignificant, which surprisingly suggests that education does not significantly affect the connectivity of vulnerable employment and economic growth. The findings contribute the existing knowledge body by providing evidence that the growth implications of vulnerable employment are non-linear and have significance in countries with lower economic growth (25%ile), challenging linear employment–growth assumptions in development economics. Hence, it delivers important policy implications that employment-growth connection is crucial in lower growing economies irrespective of education.