Gender equity and globalization: Macroeconomic policy for developing countries

Seguino, Stephanie and Grown, Caren (2006): Gender equity and globalization: Macroeconomic policy for developing countries. Published in: Journal of International Development , Vol. 18, (2006): pp. 1-24.

Abstract

This paper reviews the evidence of gender effects of globalization in developing economies. It then outlines a set of macroeconomic and trade policies to promote gender equity in the distribution of resources. The evidence suggests that while liberalization has expanded women’s access to employment, the long-term goal of transforming gender inequalities remains unmet and appears unattainable without regulation of capital, and a reorientation and expansion of the state’s role in funding public goods and providing s a social safety net. This paper sets forth some general principles that can produce greater gender equality, premised on shifting economies from profit-led, export-oriented to wage-led, full-employment economies. The framework is Kaleckian in its focus on the relationship between the gender distribution of income and macroeconomic outcomes.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: gender, income distribution, well-being, industrial policy, foreign direct investment, trade, macroeconomic policy
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F4 - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O2 - Development Planning and Policy; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor

References

Amsden A. 1998. A theory of government intervention in late industrialization. In State and Market in Development: Synergy or Rivalry?, Putterman L, Rueschemeyer D (eds). Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, CO.

Antecol H. 2000. An examination of cross-country differences in the gender gap in labor force participation rates. Labour Economics 7: 409-26.

Appleton S, Hoddinott, J, Krishnan, P. 1996. The gender wage gap in three African countries. Centre for the Study of the African Economies Working Paper No 96-7, University of Oxford.

Arabsheibani GR., Carneiro F, Henley A. 2003. Gender wage differentials in Brazil: Trends over a turbulent era. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3148.

Artecona R, Cunningham W. 2002. Effects of trade liberalization on the gender wage gap in Mexico. Policy Research Report Working Paper No. 21, World Bank.

Balakrishnan R. (ed). 2002. The Hidden Assembly Line: Gender Dynamics of Subcontracted Work in a Global Economy. Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, CN.

Barrientos S. 2001 Gender, flexibility, and global value chains. IDS Bulletin 32 (3): 83-93.

Barrientos S, Bee A, Matear A, Vogel I, Kay C. 1999. Women and Agribusiness: Working Miracles in the Chilean Fruit Export Sector. London: MacMillan.

Benería L. 2003. Gender, Development, and globalization: Economics as if People Mattered. Routledge, New York and London.

Berik G. 2004. Growth and gender equity in East Asia. Background Paper for the UNRISD Report Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World.

Berik G, Rodgers Y, Zveglich J. 2004. International trade and gender wage discrimination: Evidence from East Asia. Review of Development Economics 8(2): 237-254).

Bhaduri A. 1999. Macroeconomic theory and policy in developing countries. In Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy, Baker D, Epstein G, Pollin R (eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Bhaduri A, Marglin S. 1990. Unemployment and the real wage: The economic basis for contesting political ideologies. Cambridge Journal of Economics 14 (4): 375-93.

Bhattacharya D, Rahman M. 1999. Female employment under export propelled industrialization: Prospects for internalizing global opportunities in the apparel sector in Bangladesh. Occasional Paper No. 10, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).

Black S, Brainerd E. 2002. Importing inequality? The effects of increased competition on the gender wage gap. NBER Working Paper No. W 9110, Cambridge, MA.

Blackden CM, Bhanu C. 1999. Gender, growth, and poverty reduction. World Bank Technical Paper No. 428.

Blecker R. 2002. Distribution, demand and growth in Neo-Kaleckian macro models. In The Economics of Demand-led Growth: Challenging the Supply-side Vision of the Long Run, Setterfield M (ed.).Edward Elgar, Chelthenham, UK, pp. 129-52.

Blecker R, Seguino S. 2002. Macroeconomic effects of reducing gender wage inequality in an export-oriented semi-industrialized economy. Review of Development Economics 6(1): 103-119.

Blumberg RL. 1988. Income under female vs. male control: Hypotheses from a theory and data from the Third World. Journal of Family Issues 9 (1): 51-84.

Braunstein E. 2000. Engendering foreign direct investment: Family structure, labor markets, and international capital mobility. World Development 28 (7): 1157-72.

Braunstein E, Hertz T. 1998. A gendered dynamic model of export-led growth. Paper presented at ASSA meetings, January 3-5, Chicago, IL.

Bridger S, Kay R, Pinnick K. 1996. No More Heroines? Russia, Women and the Market. Routledge, New York and London.

Brown C, Cunningham W. 2002. Gender in Mexico’s maquiladora industry. Working Paper #2002-8. Center of Border Economic Studies, University of Texas-Pan American.

Carr M, Chen M, Tate J. 2000. Globalization and home-based workers. Feminist Economics 6 (3): 123-42.

Chang HJ. 1998. Transnational corporations and strategic industrial policy. In Transnational Corporations and the Global Economy, Kozul-Wright R, Rowthorn R (eds). MacMillan Press Ltd for WIDER, London

Darity W. Jr. 1995. The formal structure of a gender-segregated low-income economy. World Development 23(11): 1963-68

Davison JO, Sanchez-Taylor J. 1999. Sun, Sex and Gold: Sex Tourism in the Caribbean. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD.

Deere CD. 2004. The feminization of agriculture? Economic restructuring in rural Latin America. Background paper, Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.

Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS). 2002. Yearbook of Earnings and Productivity Statistics. Republic of China:

Dolan C, Humphrey J, Harris-Pascal C. 1999. Horticulture commodity chains: The impact of the UK market on the African fresh vegetable industry. IDS Working Paper No. 96, Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies.

Dollar D, Gatti R. 1999. Gender inequality, income, and growth: Are good times good for women? Policy Research Report on Gender and Development, Working paper series No. 1, World Bank

Eatwell J. 1996. International financial liberalization: The impact on world development. Discussion Paper Series, New York: UNDP, Office of Development Studies.

Elson D, Cagatay N. 2000. The social content of macroeconomic policies. World Development 28 (67): 1347-64.

Epstein G, Power D. 2002. The return of finance and finance's returns: Recent Trends in rentier incomes in OECD countries, 1960-2000. Research Brief 2002-2, Political Economy Research Institute.

Erturk K. 2001-2002. Overcapacity and the East Asian crisis. Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics 24 (2): 253-75

Felix D. 1998 Asia and the crisis of financial globalization. In Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy, Baker D, Epstein G, Pollin P. (eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Fernandez-Kelly P, Sassen S. 1993. Recasting women in the global economy: Internationalization and changing definitions of gender. Russell Sage Foundation Working Paper #36.

Floro M. 1995. Economic restructuring, gender and the allocation of time. World Development 23(11): 1913-29.

Fodor E. 2004. Women at work: The status of women in the labour markets of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Background paper for UNRISD Report on Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World. Fontana M. 2002. Modeling the effects of trade on women at work and at home: A comparative perspective. Mimeo, IFPRI.

_____. 2003. The gender effects of trade liberalisation in developing countries: A review of the literature. University of Sussex, Discussion Papers in Economics No. 101.

Fontana M, Joekes S, Masika R. 1998. Trade liberalisation: Gender issues and impacts. Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom.

Freeman C. 2000. High Tech and High Heels in the Global economy: Women, Work, and Pink Collar Identities in the Caribbean. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.

Ghosh J. 2002. Globalisation, Export-oriented employment for women, and social policy: A case study of India. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).

Gupta, ND. 2002. Gender, pay, and development: A cross-country analysis. Labour and Management in Development Journal 3(2).

Gustaffson B, Li, S. 2003. Economic transformation and the gender earnings gap in urban China. Journal of Population Economics 13: 305-29.

Harrison A. 2002. Has globalization eroded labor’s share? Some cross-country Evidence. Mimeo, University of California, Berkeley.

Hill MA, King E. 1995. Women’s education and economic well-being. Feminist Economics 1(2): 21-46.

Hsiung PC. 1996. Living Rooms as Factories: Class, Gender, and the Satellite Factory System in Taiwan. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA:

Huff WG. 1995. What is the Singapore model of economic development? Cambridge Journal of Economics 19: 735-59.

Jomo KS. 2004. Globalization, export-oriented industrialization, and female employment in East Asia. Paper prepared for UNRISD project on Globalization, Export Oriented Employment for Women and Social Policy.

Kabeer N. 2000. The Power to Choose: Bangladeshi Women and Labour Market Decisions in London and Dhaka. Verso, London.

Klasen S. 2002. Low schooling for girls, slower growth for all? Cross-country evidence on the effect of gender inequality in education on economic development. World Bank Economic Review 16 (3): 345-373

Kongar E. 2004. Importing equality or exporting jobs? Competition and gender wage and employment differentials. Working paper, Carlisle, PA: Dickinson College.

Kucera, D. 2001. The effect of core worker rights on labour costs and foreign direct investment: Evaluating the ‘conventional wisdom. Mimeo, International Institute of Labor Studies, Geneva.

Kucera D, Milberg W. 2000. Gender segregation and gender bias in manufacturing trade expansion: Revisiting the ‘Wood Asymmetry.’ World Development 28 (7): 1191-1210. Lim J. 2000. The effect of globalization and the East Asian crisis on the employment of women and men: The Philippine case. World Development 28 (7): 1285-1306. Liu AYC. 2004. Gender wage gap in Vietnam: 1993 to 1998. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (3): 586-96.

Long L., Hung L., Truitt A., Phuong ML, Nguyen AD. 2000. Changing gender relations in Vietnam's post Doi Moi era. World Bank Policy Research Report Working Paper No. 14. World Bank, Washington, DC.

Maddison A. 1995. Monitoring the World Economy 1890-92. OECD, Paris.

Maurer-Fazio, M, Rawski, TG, Zhang, W. 1999. Inequality in the rewards for holding up half the sky: Gender wage gaps in China's urban labor markets, 1988-1994. The China Journal 41: 55-88.

Maurer-Fazio M, Hughes J. 2002. The effects of market liberalization on the relative earnings of Chinese women. William Davidson Institute Working Paper 460.

Marquetti A. 2004. Do rising real wages increase the rate of labor-saving technical change? Some econometric evidence.” Metroeconomica 55(4): 432-41.

Mehra R, Gammage S. 1999. Trends, countertrends, and gaps in women’s employment. World Development 27 (30): 533-50.

Mishel L, Bernstein J. 1999. The State of Working America 1997-98. M.E. Sharpe, Inc, Armonk, NY.

Nam JL. 1991. Income Inequality between the Sexes and the Role of the State: South Korea 1960-1990. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, Indiana University.

Newman C. 2000. Worker and firm determinants of piece rate variation in agricultural labor markets. Economic Development and Cultural Change 49 (1): 137-69.

Oostendorp R. 2004. Globalization and the gender wage gap. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3256.

Ozler S. 2000. Export orientation and female share of employment: Evidence from Turkey. World Development 28 (7): 1239-1248.

Panic M. 1998. Transnational corporations and the nation state. In Transnational Corporations and the Global Economy, Kozul-Wright R, Rowthorn R (eds), MacMillan Press Ltd for WIDER, London.

Poterba J. 1997. The rate of return to corporate capital and factor shares: New estimates using revised national income accounts and capital stock data. Working Paper No. 6263. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

Rama M. 2001. The consequence of doubling the minimum wage: The case of Indonesia. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 54 (4): 864-81.

Rodrik D. 1997. Has Globalization Gone Too Far? Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC.

Roh M. 1990 A study on home-based work in South Korea. Women’s Studies Forum (Korean Women’s Development Institute): 45-145.

Saget C. 2001. Poverty reduction and decent work in developing countries: Do minimum wages help? International Labour Review 140 (3): 237-69.

Samarasinghe V. 1998. The feminization of foreign currency earnings: Women’s labor in Sri Lanka. Journal of Developing Areas 32: 303-326.

Sayeed A, Balakrishnan R. 2004. Why do firms disintegrate? Towards an understanding of the firm level decision to sub-contract and its impact on labor. In Labor and the Globalization of Production: Causes and Consequences of Industrial Upgrading, Milberg W (ed). Palgrave MacMillan.

Seguino S. 2005. Is more mobility good?: Mobile capital and the low-wage low- productivity trap. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

_____. 2004. Why are women in the Caribbean do much more likely than men to be unemployed? Social and Economics Studies 52(4): 83-120.

_____. 2002. Gender, quality of life, and growth in Asia 1970 to 1990. The Pacific Review 15 (2): 245-77.

_____. 2000a. The effects of structural change and economic liberalization on gender wage differentials in South Korea and Taiwan. Cambridge Journal of Economics 24 (4): 437-59.

_____. 2000b. Gender inequality and economic growth: A cross-country analysis. World Development 28 (7): 1211-30.

_____. 1999-2000. The investment function revisited: Disciplining capital in Korea. Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics 22 (2): 313-38.

Sen A. 1999. Development as Freedom. Anchor Books, New York.

Setterfield M. 2003. Neo-Kaleckian growth dynamics and the state of long-run expectations: Wage- versus profit-led growth. In Old and New Growth Theory, Salvadori N (ed). Edward Elgar, Chelthanham, UK.

Singh A. 2000. Global economic trends and social development. Occasional Paper No. 9, UNRISD.

Singh A, Zammit A. 2002. Gender effects of the financial crisis in South Korea. Paper presented at New Directions in Research on Gender-Aware Macroeconomics and International Economies: An International Symposium. Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.

Sowerine J. 1999. New land rights and women’s access to medicinal plants in northern Vietnam. In Women’s Rights to House and Land: China, Laos, and Vietnam, Tinker I, Summerfield G (eds). Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, CO.

Standing G. 1989. Global feminization through flexible labor. World Development 17 (7): 1077-95.

______. 1999. Global feminization revisited. World Development 27 (7): 583-602.

Stephen L. 2000. Sweet and sour grapes: The struggles of seasonal women workers in Chile. In Women Farmers and Commercial Ventures: Increasing Food Security in Developing Countries, Spring A(ed). L. Rienner Publishers, Boulder, CO.

Tanzi V. 1995. Taxation in an Integrating World. Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.

Thrupp L, Bergeron, G, Waters W. 1995. Bittersweet Harvests for Global Supermarkets: Challenges in Latin America’s Agricultural Export Boom. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC.

Tzannatos Z. 1999. Women and labor market changes in the global economy: Growth helps, inequalities hurt and public policy matters. World Development 27 (3): 551-69.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 1997 Human Development Report 1997. Oxford University Press, New York.

_____. 1999. World Survey on the Role of Women in Development: Globalization, Gender, and Work. Author, New York.

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. 2005. Gender Equality: Struggling for Justice in an Unequal World. Author, Geneva.

Wallerstein M, Przeworski A. 1995. Capital taxation with open borders. Review of International Political Economy 2(3): 425-45.

Williams P. 1999. Trafficking in women and children: A market perspective. In Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex: The New Slave Trade, Williams P (ed). Frank Cass, London.

Wink C, Klasen S. 2003. Missing women: Revisiting the debate. Feminist Economics 9 (2-3): 263-99.

World Bank. 2001. Engendering Development Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice. Oxford University Press, New York.

You, JI. 1989. Capital-Labor Relations and Economic Development. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University.