Gender Equality: Which Policies Have the Biggest Bang for the Buck?

By Sonali Jain-Chandra, Kalpana Kochhar, Monique Newiak, Yang Yang, Edda Zoli

May 10, 2018

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Sonali Jain-Chandra, Kalpana Kochhar, Monique Newiak, Yang Yang, and Edda Zoli. Gender Equality: Which Policies Have the Biggest Bang for the Buck?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2018) accessed November 9, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

This paper analyzes the relationship between fiscal and structural policies and gender inequality in education and labor force participation for countries at different stages of development. Due to the substantial number of possible factors that link with gender inequality previously highlighted in the literature, we pay particular attention to addressing model uncertainty and using various statistical methods to find the variables with the strongest links to gender gaps. We find that higher public spending on education, better sanitation facilities, low adolescent fertility, and narrower marriage age gaps are significantly related to narrower gender gaps in education. We also find that better infrastructure, a stronger institutional environment, more equal legal rights, and low adolescent fertility rates are strongly associated with higher female labor force participation. When labor market protection is low, an increase in protection is associated with a narrowing of labor force participation gaps between men and women. But when labor market protection levels are high, an increase in protection is associated with a widening in labor force participation gaps.

Subject: Education, Gender, Gender diversity, Gender inequality, Labor, Labor force participation, Women

Keywords: Bang for the buck, Female labor force participation, Fertility rate, Gender diversity, Gender gap, Gender inequality, Labor force, Labor force participation, Labor market, Labor market protection, Marriage age gap, North America, Participation gap, Protection index, Public spending, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Women, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

31
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2018/105
Stock No:

WPIEA2018105
ISBN:

9781484353257
ISSN:

1018-5941

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