Does Gender Inequality Reduce Growth and Development? Evidence from Cross-Country Regressions

Using cross-country and panel regressions, this paper investigates to what extent gender inequality in education and employment may reduce growth and development. The paper finds a considerable impact of gender inequality on economic growth which is robust to changes in specifications and controls for potential endogeneities. The results suggest that gender inequality in education has a direct impact on economic growth through lowering the average quality of human capital. In addition, economic growth is indirectly affected through the impact of gender inequality on investment and population growth. Point estimates suggest that between 0.4-0.9 % of the differences in growth rates between East Asia and Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East can be accounted for by the larger gender gaps in education prevailing in the latter regions. Moreover, the analysis shows that gender inequality in education prevents progress in reducing fertility and child mortality rates, thereby compromising progress in well-being in developing countries

The´Efficiency`of Equity

In standard neo-classical economics, efficiency and equity issues are largely treated as separate and separable issues. In this paper, I will discuss findings from four strands of literature that challenge this separability and in fact suggest that greater equity will promote greater efficiency in the sense of maximizing well-being in a society. There four strands refer to findings from the experimental literature on the importance of equity or fairness, the subjective well-being literature on the importance of relative incomes and inequality on subjective well-being, the distribution-adjusted well-being literature that combines measures of mean incomes with measures of income inequality to derive at welfare judgements across space and time, and the literature on the relationship between income and gender inequality on economic growth. Some implications for research and policy are explored.Efficiency, equity, experimental economics, subjective well-being

Missing Women: Some Recent Controversies on Levels and Trends in Gender Bias in Mortality

This paper discusses two recent controversies surrounding levels and trends in the number of ‘missing women’ in the world. First, the impact of fertility decline on gender bias in mortality is examined. Contrary to the expectations of some authors, fertility decline has not generally led to an intensification of gender bias in mortality. Second, the paper finds that the claim that a substantial portion of ‘missing women’ is due to higher sex ratios at birth linked to hepatitis B prevalence in the affected regions is on rather weak foundations, while there is substantial evidence countering this claim.Missing women, fertility decline, Hepatitis B, sex-selective abortions, gender bias in mortality

Poverty, Undernutrition, and Child Mortality: Some Inter-Regional Puzzles and their Implications for Research and Policy

This paper examines the relationship between measures of income poverty, undernourishment, childhood undernutrition, and child mortality in developing countries. While there is, as expected, a close aggregate correlation between these measures of deprivation, the measures generate some inter-regional paradoxes. Income poverty and child mortality is highest in Africa, but childhood undernutrition is by far the highest in South Asia, while the share of people with insufficient calories (undernourishment) is highest in the Caribbean. The paper finds that standard explanations cannot account for these inter-regional paradoxes, particularly the ones related to undernourishment and childhood undernutrition. The paper suggests that measurement issues related to the way undernourishment and childhood undernutrition is measured might play a significant role in affecting these inter-regional puzzles and points to implications for research and policy. --Millennium Development Goals,Undernutrition,Child Mortality,Poverty

Gender-Related Indicators of Well-Being

This paper discusses the rationale as well as the challenges involved when constructing gender-related indicators of well-being. It argues that such indicators are critically important but that their construction involved a number of conceptual and measurement problems. Among the conceptual issues to be considered are the space in which gender inequality in well-being is to be measured, whether the indicators should track well being of males and females separately or adjust overall measures of well-being by the gender inequality in well-being, whether gender equality in every indicator is necessarily the goal, how to assess gender inequality that is apparently desired by males and females, and what role indicators of agency or empowerment should play in gender-related indicators of well-being. Among the most important measurement issues to be addressed are the role of the household in allocating resources, the question of stocks versus flows, as well as significant data gaps when it comes to gender inequalities. Where appropriate, remedies to the conceptual and measurement issues are proposed. The paper also briefly reviews UNDP’s gender-related indices to illustrate some of the challenges involved.

In Search of the Holy Grail: How to Achieve Pro-Poor Growth?

Pro Poor Growth has become a central concern to achieve sustainable poverty reduction in developing countries. Despite being widely used, the term is not well-defined nor has there been a clear policy document that would summarize the determinants and policy implications of pro poor growth. This paper seeks to fill this void by first proposing a definition of pro poor growth, then summarizing the linkages between inequality, poverty, and pro poor growth, before proceeding to analyze the micro and sectoral determinants of pro poor growth. The final section spells out the recently emerging consensus on policy implications for pro poor growth, with particular emphasis on policy issues in Sub Saharan Africa and points to remaining disagreements and areas for further research. The paper emphasizes the particular importance of inequalityreducing policies for pro poor growth as well as the need to further analyze the scope of activist state policies to deliver a pro poor agenda.Pro Poor Growth, Inequality, Sub Saharan Africa, Sectoral and regional policies

Determinants of pro-poor growth:

Poverty reduction, Hunger, Inequality, Pro-poor growth, Poverty, Measuring growth, Gender inequality,

Poverty, Undernutrition, and Child Mortality: Some Inter-Regional Puzzles and their Implications for Research and Policy

This paper examines the relationship between measures of income poverty, undernourishment, childhood undernutrition, and child mortality in developing countries. While there is, as expected, a close aggregate correlation between these measures of deprivation, the measures generate some inter-regional paradoxes. Income poverty and child mortality is highest in Africa, but childhood undernutrition is by far the highest in South Asia, while the share of people with insufficient calories (undernourishment) is highest in the Caribbean. The paper finds that standard explanations cannot account for these inter-regional paradoxes, particularly the ones related to undernourishment and childhood undernutrition. The paper suggests that measurement issues related to the way undernourishment and childhood undernutrition is measured might play a significant role in affecting these inter-regional puzzles and points to implications for research and policy.Millennium Development Goals, Undernutrition, Child Mortality, Poverty

Macroeconomic Policy and Pro-Poor Growth in Bolivia

In this paper, we analyze the potential and limitations of macroeconomic policy to affect propoor growth in Bolivia. After discussing the possibility to use macro policy to affect pro-poor growth in general, I then turn to the case of Bolivia, a highly dualistic small open economy that undertook significant macroeconomic and structural reforms in the 1990s. We show that the growth these reforms generated was generally pro-poor in the 1990s but was not enough to achieve significant poverty reduction due to high levels of initial inequality. It also made the country more vulnerable to external shocks which forced the economy into an anti-poor contraction after 1998. Using a dynamic CGE model we demonstrate that there are only limited options for pro-poor macro policy which is particularly due to the low domestic savings rate and the high rate of dollarization of the economy. Consequently, in order to increase the options for pro-poor macro policy, the large inequality, the high dualism, the low savings rate, and high dollarization of the economy need to be addressed.Pro-Poor Growth, Bolivia, CGE model, dollarization

Pro-Poor Growth and Gender Inequality

This paper examines to what extent gender gaps in education, health, employment, productive assets and inputs can affect pro poor growth (in the sense of increasing monetary incomes of the poor). After discussing serious methodological problems with examining gender issues in the context of an income-based pro-poor growth framework, the paper considers theory and evidence on the impact of gender inequality on pro poor growth. While there is a considerable literature suggesting negative impacts of gender gaps on growth, there is much less information on the impact of gender gaps on inequality. The paper then examines the experiences of country cases and finds that gender inequality can have a significant effect on pro-poor growth, but that the importance and type of effects differ considerably between different regions. It also appears that the effects of gender gaps on pro-poor growth operate primarily via an impact on growth rather than an impact on distributional change.Gender, Pro-Poor Growth, Operationalising Pro-Poor Growth