Gunseli Berik

Mature Export-Led Growth and Gender Wage Inequality in Taiwan

After 1980, the Taiwanese economy was marked by technological change, growing overseas investment by Taiwanese firms, and continuing success with export-oriented manufacturing. In the manufacturing sector these developments coincided with a decline in womens employment opportunities relative to mens, a shift from wage to salaried employment, and an increase in gender wage inequality. Using industry-level panel data, this study investigates the effects of Taiwans restructuring during this period on gender wage inequality. The most important findings are: greater export orientation adversely affects both mens and womens wages yet reduces gender wage inequality, because male employees face a greater wage penalty than women; greater capital intensity improves both mens and womens wages; and the shift toward salaried jobs improves mens wages while reducing wages of women. These results hold after controlling for the effects of female industrial crowding, female reserve labor supply, firm size, and overseas foreign direct investment.

Feminist Economics of Inequality, Development, and Growth

Abstract This study examines connections between intergroup inequality and macroeconomic outcomes, considering various channels through which gender, growth, and development interact. It upholds the salience not only of equality in opportunities but also equality in outcomes. The contribution argues that inequalities based on gender, race, ethnicity, and class undermine the ability to provision and expand capabilities, and it examines the macroeconomic policies that are likely to promote broadly shared development. It explores how the macroeconomy acts as a structure of constraint in achieving gender equality and in turn how gender relations in areas like education and wage gaps can have macro-level impacts. Further, it underscores that the interaction of the macroeconomy and gender relations depends on the structure of the economy, the nature of job segregation, the particular measure of gender inequality, and a countrys international relations. Finally, it outlines policies for promoting gender equality as both an intrinsic goal and a step toward improving well-being.

Time Allocation of Married Mothers and Fathers in Hard Times: The 2007–09 US Recession

Using American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data for 2003–10, this study examines whether the 2007–09 recession contributed to gender equality in married mothers’ and fathers’ paid and unpaid work hours. Trend analysis shows that the recession narrowed the disparity in both paid and unpaid work hours, as mothers substituted paid work for unpaid work and fathers’ paid work hours declined. If the jobless recovery after June 2009 is included in the recessionary period, hardship in the labor market for fathers brought greater gender equality only in paid work. Relative to mothers and in an absolute sense, fathers’ paid work hours and total workload declined and their personal care and leisure time increased. These findings suggest an alternative path for moving toward equality in workloads that entails gender-equitable job creation, living wage, and work–life balance policies.

China's Transition and Feminist Economics

Abstract Since 1978 China has been undergoing transition from a socialist to a capitalist economy and the opening up to international trade and investment. This process has been accelerated by WTO membership. This article presents an overview of the gendered processes and outcomes associated with Chinas reforms, mainly focusing on the post-1992 period when the pace of reforms accelerated. The imperative for accumulation and efficiency has resulted not only in impressive growth but also in the weakening of land rights for women, disproportionate layoffs for women workers in state enterprises, rising gender disparities in urban and rural wage employment, growing income insecurity, declining access to healthcare, and the adoption of Western/global commodified beauty standards. While jobs are expanding in new sectors and foreign-invested enterprises, these jobs are often associated with poor working conditions. This volume argues for reprioritizing equity and welfare on the policy agenda.

The Need for Crossing the Method Boundaries in Economics Research

Feminist economists should make greater use of qualitative methods and enhance the complementarities between survey and qualitative methods. This will facilitate three outcomes of value for feminist economics: uncover and correct androcentric biases in survey-generated data/analyses; advance theory and empirical research on the processes that underlie economic outcomes; broaden the range of topics to include those on the margins of the discipline.

Does Trade Promote Gender Wage Equity? Evidence from East Asia

This study explores the impact of competition from international trade on the gender wage gap in Taiwan and South Korea between 1980 and 1999. The dynamic implications of Beckers 1959 theory of discrimination lead one to expect that increased competition from international trade reduces the incentive for employers to discriminate against women. This effect should be more pronounced in concentrated sectors of the economy, where employers can use excess profits to cover the costs of discrimination. Alternatively, wage discrimination may increase with growing trade limiting womens ability to achieve wage gains. The empirical strategy controls for differences in market structure across industries in order to isolate the effect of competition from international trade. Estimation results are not consistent with Beckers theory, as greater international competition in concentrated sectors is associated with larger wage gaps between men and women.

Do Unions Help or Hinder Women in Training? Apprenticeship Programs in the United States

Trade unions are frequently criticised for excluding women from skilled crafts by denying them training. This article examines this argument by estimating the retention and attrition probabilities of men and women in the joint union-management and the unilateral employer-sponsored apprenticeship programs. While men, on average, have higher retention and lower attrition rates than women, joint sponsorship raises womens graduation probability above (and lowers their quit probability below) those of men or women apprentices in unilateral programs.

Still a Wedge in the Door: Women Training for the Construction Trades in the U.S

This paper uses individual-level data on registered apprenticeship for ten largest construction occupations from 31 states in the U.S. to evaluate the variations in the entry and exit of women apprentices, overall and by race/ethnicity, over the 1995-2003 period. We examine how women’s representation among new apprentices, and their attrition and retention rates varies with individual, training program, and occupational characteristics. We find that women’s representation among new trainees is very low and deteriorating. The results confirm previous findings based on data for the early 1990s that program sponsorship has significant impact on women’s representation and retention. Women have better chances of joining the high-skill construction workforce if they enroll in union-contractor joint programs. Joint programs feature higher shares of women in the incoming classes and higher odds of graduation in comparison with the unilateral contractor programs. The union impact on shares of enrollees is the largest for Black women and the lowest for White women, while White women have higher completion rates than Latinas and Black women. We conclude that union sponsorship enhances women’s integration into the skilled trades, but it is not sufficient. Increasing participation of women in apprenticeship and skilled workforce requires major changes in policies, priorities, and behavior of contactors, unions, and the government to actively recruit women and improve working conditions at the construction site.

Beyond the rhetoric of gender equality at the World Bank and the IMF

ABSTRACT This article reviews the rhetoric and practice of the IMF and the World Bank in promoting gender equality. It shows that these institutions, in making the case for the synergy between gender equality and economic growth, neglect both the potential of gender wage inequality to stimulate growth and the macroeconomic enabling conditions for gender equality. In practice, they fall short in promoting gender equality due to their limited conception of it, narrow assessment criteria and continued insistence on neoliberal and austerity policies.

What’s macroeconomic policy got to do with gender inequality? Evidence from Asia

equality’, in Ocampo JA and Jomo KS (eds) Towards Full and Decent Employment (Zed Books and Orient Longman, 2007); ‘Gender issues in development’, in Dutt AK and Ros J (eds) International Handbook of Development Economics (Edward Elgar, 2008); (with R Balakrishnan) ‘Auditing economic policy in the light of obligations on economic and social rights’, Essex Human Rights Review 5(1), 2008; and ‘Gender equality and economic growth in the World Bank World Development Report 2006’, Feminist Economics 15(3), 2009. In 2006, she was honoured when a chapter on her research was included in Fifty Key Thinkers in Development (ed. Simon D; Routledge).