Stephanie Seguino

Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis

This paper investigates empirically the determinants of economic growth for a set of semi-industrialized export-oriented economies in which women provide the bulk of labor in the export sector. The primary hypothesis tested is that gender inequality which contributes to womens relatively lower wages was a stimulus to growth via the effect on exports during 1975--95. Empirical analysis shows that GDP growth is positively related to gender wage inequality in contrast to recent work which suggests that income inequality slows growth. Evidence also indicates that part of the impact of gender wage inequality on growth is transmitted through its positive effect on investment as a share of GDP.

Accounting for Gender in Asian Economic Growth

Absent from the important debate on the determinants of rapid Asian growth is the role of gender inequality. This paper argues that gender wage inequality has stimulated growth, with Asian economies that disadvantaged women the most growing the fastest from 1975 to 1990. Low female wages have spurred investment and exports by lowering unit labor costs, providing the foreign exchange to purchase capital and intermediate goods which raise productivity and growth rates. These results contrast with recent studies that argue income equality at the household level contributed favorably to Asian growth by reducing political conflict. The divergent findings can be explained by the fact that gender norms and stereotypes that convince women to accept their low status curb labor and political unrest, stimulating investment. The results indicate that which group bears the burden of inequality in the process of economic growth matters.

Gender wage inequality and export‐led growth in South Korea

This article investigates the relationship between gender, wage inequality, and export-led growth in South Korea. The persistent gender wage gap in Koreas manufacturing sector is found to be linked to womens segregation in the countrys major export industries where real wage growth has lagged productivity growth, despite favorable market conditions that might drive up womens wages relative to those of men. The interaction of state- and firm-level hiring, training, and promotion practices that structure womens and mens employment opportunities differently appear to have resulted in a relatively weaker fall-back position for women in labour markets. Econometric results are consistent with the hypothesis that womens weaker fall-back position limits their ability to bargain for wage increases commensurate with productivity growth. Further, evidence is presented which links gender wage inequality to the growth of Korean exports.

PlusCa Change? evidence on global trends in gender norms and stereotypes

Abstract Gender norms and stereotypes that perpetuate inequality are deeply embedded in social and individual consciousness and, as a result, are resistant to change. Gender stratification theories propose that womens control over material resources can increase bargaining power to leverage change in key institutions, prompting a shift to more equitable norms. By extension, policies that promote womens paid employment should serve as a fulcrum for gender equitable change. Is there any evidence to support this hypothesis? Investigating this requires a means to capture gender norms and stereotypes. The World Values Survey provides just such a mechanism because it contains a series of gender questions that span a twenty-year period and includes respondents from more than seventy countries. This paper uses that surveys data to analyze determinants of trends in norms and stereotypes over time and across countries, and finds evidence that increases in womens paid employment promotes gender equitable norms and stereotypes.

Gender and cooperative behavior: economic man rides alone

Neoclassical theory posits an undifferentiated economic agent whose self-interested behavior promotes a tendency to free ride in the provision of public goods. Challenges to this rigid portrayal of human character have come from a variety of directions. A dozen years ago Gerald Marwell and Ruth Ames conducted experiments which showed that (virtually all male) economic graduate students tended to free ride significantly more than a mixed population of high school students. In this paper, we argue that gender may also influence the degree to which humans act in a self-interested versus cooperative manner. We test this hypothesis by replicating the Marwell and Ames experiments using a similar, albeit simplified, methodology, with a sample of only college students separated into economists and non-economists. After controlling for group size, gender, and exposure to economics courses, we find that a key factor affecting the level of cooperation is gender.

Macroeconomic Effects of Reducing Gender Wage Inequality in an Export-Oriented, Semi-Industrialized Economy

The paper presents two short-run, structuralist models of an export-oriented, two-sector, semi-industrialized economy in which women workers are concentrated in export production. The first model analyzes the comparative static effects of an exogenous increase in female wages holding male wages and the exchange rate constant. The second model endogenizes the female-male wage ratio and the real exchange rate, assuming flexible nominal wages and a crawling-peg exchange rate. Either stable or unstable dynamics are possible. In the stable cases, a depreciation policy can either close or widen the gender wage gap. Copyright 2002 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Does Gender have any Effect on Aggregate Saving? An empirical analysis

This study investigates the effects of gender on aggregate saving. We test the hypothesis that shifts in womens relative income, which can affect their bargaining power within the household, have a discernible impact on household saving and, by extension, gross domestic saving, due to differing saving propensities by gender. The empirical analysis is based on panel data for a set of semi-industrialised economies, covering the period 1975-95. The results indicate that, as some measures of womens relative income and bargaining power increase, gross domestic saving rates rise. The implied gender disparity in saving propensities may be linked to differences in saving motives based on gender roles, and well as divergent experiences of economic vulnerability. These findings suggest the importance of understanding gender differences in planning for savings mobilisation and in the formulation of financial and investment policies.

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.

The global economic crisis, its gender and ethnic implications, and policy responses

The global financial crisis that began in 2008 has resulted in the widespread destruction of jobs and livelihoods. Among the factors that precipitated the crisis, growing inequality both within and between countries contributed to low levels of aggregate demand and the reliance of low-income households on unsustainable borrowing to maintain living standards. The crisis provides the opportunity to rethink macroeconomic policy, and for feminist economists to advance proposals that promote jobs, economic security, and equality by class, gender, and ethnicity. Reviving the global economy will require policies that focus heavily on job creation, putting money into the hands of low- and middle-income households.

Is more mobility good?: Firm mobility and the low wage-low productivity trap

This paper explores the possibility that unregulated FDI flows are causally implicated in the decline in labor productivity growth in semi-industrialized economies. These effects are hypothesized to operate through the negative impact of firm mobility on worker bargaining power and thus affecting wages. Downward pressure on wages can reduce the pressure on firms to raise productivity in defense of profits, contributing to a low wageÐlow productivity trap. This paper presents empirical evidence, based on panel data fixed effects and GMM estimation for 37 semi-industrialized economies, that supports the causal link between increased firm mobility and lower wages, as well as slower productivity growth over the period 1970Ð2000.