Gendered dimensions of educational premium disadvantage in earnings in USA, 2019

The relationships between gender-based earnings disparity and gendered dimensions of human capital gains and labor market changes are quite complex. Some scholars have argued that gender bias improves the over economy of a country/society. Others, however, have argued otherwise, adding to the narrative that despite an overall positive role of educational/human capital gains by women, the benefits reaped by them is non-linear, often with declining premiums for educational progress. This research investigates gendered earnings disadvantage and (dis)parity across US counties by employing GIS-based maps, descriptive statistics, correlations and regression analyses wherein female earnings and female-versus-male earnings ratios are regressed against select explanatory variables representing educational attainments, gender-based work-status, and their occupational over/under-representation in the labor market. Five-years estimates data (2015-2019) from the NHGIS are used for computing location quotients for major occupation-types by gender and additional statistical analyses. Females with professional, Master's and doctoral degrees have improved earnings, even though gender parity is better for both genders among the less educated. Sadly, gender disparity in earnings is higher when male-versus-female ratio increases for those majoring in science/engineering, science and engineering-related and business degrees. Greater gender parity, however, is noted when more men major in Education-a sub-field largely deemed as feminine. This research calls for focused policy interventions toward encouraging more women in STEM and science/engineering disciplines, along with strategic programs to help attract more women into working full-time-one of the several ways toward bridging the earnings gap.

Growth, inequality and poverty: a robust relationship?

The consequences of poverty and inequality for growth have long preoccupied academics and policy-makers. This paper revisits the inequality-growth and poverty-growth links. Using a panel of 158 countries between 1960 and 2010, we find that the correlation of growth with poverty is consistently negative: A 10 p.p. decrease in the headcount poverty rate is associated with a subsequent increase in per capita GDP between 0.5 and 1.2% per year. In contrast, the correlation of growth with inequality is empirically fragile-it can be positive or negative, depending on the empirical specification and econometric approach employed. However, the indirect effect of inequality on growth through its correlation with poverty is robustly negative. Closer inspection shows that these results are driven by the sample observations featuring high poverty rates.

Is Gender Inequality a Barrier to Economic Growth? A Panel Data Analysis of Developing Countries

This study provides empirical evidence about the effects of various dimensions of gender inequalities (education, labour market and institutional representation) on economic growth. We use data from the World Bank Development Indicators database for the period 1990–2017. We initially use a large panel of 105 developing countries. Subsequently we study a panel with the sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries since this region is one of the poorest regions in the world. We estimate cross-country and panel regressions. The results suggest that gender equality in education contributes to economic growth and this is a common feature in developing countries. The contribution of equality in education to growth seems to be greater in the SSA countries than in the entire sample of developing countries. The female–male ratio of labour market participation is not statistically significant. We also find a significant link between the presence of women in parliaments and growth in the sample of all developing countries, while this relationship is negative for the SSA countries. It is likely that despite the increased participation of women in the political arena in these countries, women may still encounter major obstacles to altering political priorities and affecting economic growth.

Graduates’ Opium? Cultural Values, Religiosity and Gender Segregation by Field of Study

This paper studies the relationship between cultural values and gender distribution across fields of study in higher education. I compute national, field and subfield-level gender segregation indices for a panel dataset of 26 OECD countries for 1998–2012. This panel dataset expands the focus of previous macro-level research by exploiting data on gender segregation in specific subfields of study. Fixed-effects estimates associate higher country-level religiosity with lower gender segregation in higher education. These models crucially control for potential segregation factors, such as labor market and educational institutions, and gender gaps in both self-beliefs and academic performance in math among young people.

Female Education Externality and Inclusive Growth

Education is generally believed to be beneficial in fostering, independent of gender, higher labor productivity. Female education may, however, cause other socio-economic gains which are not captured by higher wage or better compensation package for the educated female worker in the labor market (positive externality). This paper investigates the casual effect of enhancing female education and reducing gender education inequality on various measures of sustainable development. After addressing the endogeneity issue associated with gender education inequality employing a novel instrumental variable (IV), we find mitigating gender education inequality to be associated with lower infant mortality and poverty rates and improvements in health and environmental conditions. Our IV estimation result reports that a one-standard-deviation increase in the female-to-male ratio of average years of schooling is associated with a lower poverty rate by about 0.98 percentage points. The results indicate that expanding women’s educational opportunities is an effective way to promote inclusive growth.

Gender Equality and Economic Diversification

We show that gender inequality decreases the variety of goods countries produce and export, in particular in low-income and developing countries. We argue that this happens through at least two channels: first, gender gaps in opportunity, such as lower educational enrollment rates for girls than for boys, harm diversification by constraining the potential pool of human capital available in an economy. Second, gender gaps in the labor market impede the development of new ideas by decreasing the efficiency of the labor force. Our empirical estimates support these hypotheses, providing evidence that gender-friendly policies could help countries diversify their economies.

Students and brides: a qualitative analysis of the relationship between girls' education and early marriage in Ethiopia and India

BACKGROUND

Early marriage (< 18 years) is associated with education cessation among girls. Little research has qualitatively assessed how girls build resiliency in affected contexts. This study examines these issues in Oromia, Ethiopia and Jharkhand, India among girls and their decision-makers exposed to early marriage prevention programs.

METHODS

Qualitative interviews were conducted with girls who received the intervention programs and subsequently either a) married prior to age 18 or b) cancelled/postponed their proposed early marriage. Girls also selected up to three marital decision-makers for inclusion in the study. Participants (N = 207) were asked about the value and enablers of, and barriers to, girls' education and the interplay of these themes with marriage, as part of a larger in-depth interview on early marriage. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using latent content analysis.

RESULTS

Participants recognized the benefits of girls' education, including increased self-efficacy and life skills for girls and opportunity for economic development. A girl's capacity and desire for education, as well as her self-efficacy to demand it, were key psychological assets supporting school retention. Social support from parents and teachers was also important, as was social support from in-laws and husbands to continue school subsequent to marriage. Post-marriage education was nonetheless viewed as difficult, particularly subsequent to childbirth. Other noted barriers to girls' education included social norms against girls' education and for early marriage, financial barriers, and poor value of education.

CONCLUSION

Social norms of early marriage, financial burden of school fees, and minimal opportunity for girls beyond marriage affect girls' education. Nonetheless, some girls manifest psychological resiliency in these settings and, with support from parents and teachers, are able to stay in school and delay marriage. Unfortunately, girls less academically inclined, and those who do marry early, are less supported by family and existing programs to remain in school; programmatic efforts should be expanded to include educational support for married and childbearing girls as well as options for women and girls beyond marriage.

Do gender gaps in education and health affect economic growth? A cross-country study from 1975 to 2010

We use system-generalized method-of-moments to estimate the effect of gender-specific human capital on economic growth in a cross-country panel of 127 countries between 1975 and 2010. There are several benefits of using this methodology. First, a dynamic lagged dependent econometric model is suitable to address persistence in per capita output. Second, the generalized method-of-moments estimator uses dynamic properties of the data to generate appropriate instrumental variables to address joint endogeneity of the explanatory variables. Third, we allow the measurement error to include unobserved country-specific effect and random noise. We include two gender-disaggregated measures of human capital-education and health. We find that gender gap in health plays a critical role in explaining economic growth in developing countries. Our results provide aggregate evidence that returns to investments in health systematically differ across gender and between low-income and high-income countries.

Gender Wage Inequality and Economic Growth: Is There Really a Puzzle?-A Comment

Seguino (2000) shows that gender wage discrimination in export-oriented semi-industrialized countries might be fostering investment and growth in general. While the original analysis does not have internationally comparable wage discrimination data, we replicate the analysis using data from a meta-study on gender wage discrimination and do not find any evidence that more discrimination might further economic growth-on the contrary: if anything the impact of gender inequality is negative for growth. Standing up for more gender equality-also in terms of wages-is good for equity considerations and at least not negative for growth.