Gender Equality and the Economy

While gender inequalities have diminished in some aspects of life, they remain deeply rooted in others. In no country around the world do men and women enjoy equality in economic and political participation, earnings, educational attainment, general health, and physical security. These gender gaps undermine economic growth and development and are costly to individuals and households.

The Levy Institute’s Gender Equality and the Economy (GEE) program focuses on the ways in which economic processes and policies affect gender equality, and examines the influence of gender inequalities on economic outcomes. GEE’s goal is to stimulate reexamination of key economic concepts, models, and indicators—with a particular view to reformulating policy. It offers a broad view of what an economy is and how it functions, bringing into the analysis not only paid work, but also the unpaid work (e.g., caring for families and community volunteerism) that enables the market economy to function. Ultimately, the program seeks to contribute knowledge that improves women’s status and helps them realize their rights in the United States and other countries.

Research

GEE research concentrates on three primary themes: gender equality and public finance; gender dimensions of macroeconomic and international economic policy; and gender equality, poverty, and well-being in national and international perspective. Public finance (which includes taxation, spending on goods and services, provision of income transfers from governments to households, and government borrowing and debt) has the potential to reduce or increase gender inequalities. Yet, very little research exists on the ways that various public finance policies influence gender inequality within and across countries and over time. How much do tax and transfer policies offset market-based gender-income inequalities? Does a greater voice for women in public policy result in changes in the size and composition of government budgets? What are the gender biases of taxation and tax-policy reforms?

In the past decade, a growing body of work has explored how macroeconomic outcomes are affected by gender inequalities, and how gender inequalities are influenced by macroeconomic policies. Although gender equality is not the focus of macroeconomic policy, such policies cannot be assumed to be gender neutral. Does a requirement to balance budgets make it more difficult to reduce gender inequality? Is a focus on public investment and full employment sufficient for achieving gender equality? How can economic growth and gender equality be made compatible? Can gender equality improve the employment/inflation trade-off?

The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being was established in order to improve existing official measures of economic well-being and allow for accurate cross-sectional and intertemporal comparisons. GEE will enhance this area of the Levy Institute’s work by developing research on the intersection of gender inequality and other forms of deprivation. Research will include the reexamination of U.N. indicators for measuring gender inequality and women’s empowerment, new analyses of time-use data, and the preparation of recommendations for the refinement of existing measures and/or the development of alternative indicators that can be used in policy formulation.

Research Group: Rania Antonopoulos, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Nilüfer A. Çagatay, Kijong Kim, Feridoon Koohi-Kamali, Lekha S. Chakraborty, Pinaki Chakraborty, Valeria Esquivel, Indira Hirway, Emel Memis, Fatma Gül Ünal, Imraan Valodia

Program Publications
Working Papers | November 2008 An Empirical Analysis of Gender Bias in Education Spending in Paraguay Gender affects household spending in two areas that have been widely studied in the literature. One strand documents that greater female bargaining power within households results in a variety of shifts in household production and consumption. [more] Working Paper No. 550
Working Papers | July 2008 The Unpaid Care Work–Paid Work Connection In order to provide a coherent perspective of gender differences in the world of work, the many intersections of paid and unpaid work must be brought to light. It is well documented that gender-based wage differentials and occupational segregation continue to characterize the division of labor among men and women in paid work; yet unpaid work in social reproduction, subsistence production, family businesses, and the community is often ignored. [more] Working Paper No. 541
Working Papers | July 2008 The Effects of International Trade on Gender Inequality The process of economic globalization has winners and losers. Iran’s carpet industry provides a good illustration of the adverse side of this process. [more] Working Paper No. 540
Working Papers | November 2007 Public Employment and Women In 2002, Argentina implemented a large-scale public employment program to deal with the latest economic crisis and the ensuing massive unemployment and poverty. The program, known as Plan Jefes, offered part-time work for unemployed heads of households, and yet more than 70 percent of the people who turned up for work were women. [more] Working Paper No. 519
Working Papers | October 2007 Fiscal Deficit, Capital Formation, and Crowding Out in India This paper analyzes the real (direct) and financial crowding out in India between 1970–71 and 2002–03. Using an asymmetric vector autoregressive (VAR) model, the paper finds no real crowding out between public and private investment; rather, complementarity is observed between the two. [more] Working Paper No. 518
Working Papers | September 2007 The Right to a Job, the Right Types of Projects There is now widespread recognition that in most countries, private-sector investment has not been able to absorb surplus labor. This is all the more the case for poor unskilled people. [more] Working Paper No. 516
Working Papers | July 2007 Female Land Rights, Crop Specialization, and Productivity in Paraguayan Agriculture Previous work has shown a pattern of lower household incomes for those Paraguayan farms with female landowners in the household. The study of agricultural production reveals that Paraguayan women specialize in livestock and dairy production, while men specialize in crop production. [more] Working Paper No. 504
Working Papers | May 2007 Gender Disparities in Employment and Aggregate Profitability in the United States We explore the relationships between aggregate profitability and women’s growing share of market work in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. Using decomposition analysis and counterfactuals, we investigate whether the contribution of the declining wage share to the upswing in profitability was aided by the growing incorporation of women into the workforce. [more] Working Paper No. 496
Working Papers | April 2007 Gender Inequalities in Allocating Time to Paid and Unpaid Work This working paper analyzes paid and unpaid work-time inequalities among Bolivian urban adults using time use data from a 2001 household survey. We identified a gender-based division of labor characterized not so much by who does what type of work but by how much work of each type they do. [more] Working Paper No. 495
Working Papers | March 2007 State, Difference, and Diversity Should the state treat men and women in identical ways, or should it legislate and enforce policies that are aware of gender differences? In other words, should the state be gender-blind or gender-sensitive? Gender, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, ideological, economic, political, and cultural dimensions represent diversity among citizens. This paper argues that if the goal of the state is to promote democratic participation for all, a distinction must be drawn between socioeconomic characteristics that signify difference and those that manifest inequalities. [more] Working Paper No. 493
Working Papers | August 2006 The Financial Requirements of Achieving Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been ratified in global and national forums, they have not yet been incorporated into operational planning within governments or international organizations. The weak link between the policies and the investments needed for their implementation is one barrier to progress. [more] Working Paper No. 467
Working Papers | July 2006 Quick Impact Initiatives for Gender Equality The UN Millennium Project identified a set of Quick Impact Initiatives (QIIs) for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the Millennium Project, QIIs are interventions to be implemented in the early years of an MDG scale-up strategy that generate rapid results. [more] Working Paper No. 462
Working Papers | May 2006 Feminist-Kaleckian Macroeconomic Policy for Developing Countries This paper reviews evidence of the gender effects of globalization in developing economies. It then outlines a set of macroeconomic and trade policies to promote gender equity. [more] Working Paper No. 446
Working Papers | January 2006 Importing Equality or Exporting Jobs? This study investigates the impact of increased import competition on gender wage and employment differentials in American manufacturing over the period from 1976 to 1993. Increased import competition is expected to decrease the relative demand for workers in low-wage production occupations and the relative demand for women workers, given the high female share in these occupations. [more] Working Paper No. 436
Working Papers | December 2005 All Types of Inequality Are Not Created Equal Evidence of an increase in various forms of inequality since the 1970s has motivated research on its relationship to growth and development. The findings of that research are contradictory and inconclusive. [more] Working Paper No. 433
Working Papers | July 2005 Gender Inequality in a Globalizing World Emphasis on market-friendly macroeconomic and development strategies in recent years has resulted in deleterious effects on growth and well-being, and has done little to promote greater gender equality. This paper argues that the example of East Asia states, which recognized their position as "late industrializers," relied on a managed-market approach with the state that employed a wide variety of policy instruments to promote industrialization. [more] Working Paper No. 426
Working Papers | February 2005 Asset Ownership along Gender Lines Gender differences have long been documented in earnings, employment opportunities, and time spent within the unpaid care economy. This paper joins the recent efforts in the economics literature on gender differences in asset ownership. [more] Working Paper No. 418
Working Papers | February 2003 Does Trade Promote Gender Wage Equity? 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 Becker's 1959 theory of discrimination lead one to expect that increased competition from international trade reduces the incentive for employers to discriminate against women. [more] Working Paper No. 373
Working Papers | August 2002 Race, Ethnicity, and the Gender-Poverty Gap We use data from the Current Population Survey (CPS 1994-2001) to document the relationship between gender-specific demographic variations and the gender-poverty gap among eight racial/ethnic groups. We find that black and Puerto Rican women experience a double disadvantage owing to being both women and members of a minority group. [more] Working Paper No. 351