Read more about the article Gender inequality in the labor market: the case of Morocco

Gender inequality in the labor market: the case of Morocco

Gender disparities in the labor market persist as a serious challenge, resulting in lower participation rates for women than men. This gender gap in labor force participation varies considerably across regions, with female participation rates consistently lagging men. After some progress during the last few decades, the multiple crises faced by the global economy in recent times – pandemic, the war in Ukraine, rising risks of climate change, and slowing growth after high inflation – have meant a setback to progress in reforms toward the empowerment of women in labor markets. We approach here how Morocco can strengthen productivity and economic growth by pursuing reforms to reduce gender inequality of opportunities.

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Read more about the article Development through gender equality

Development through gender equality

Empirical evidence shows that gender inequality, including from legal gender-related restrictions, leads to the loss of growth opportunities, particularly in countries at earlier stages of development. The adverse effect of legal barriers to women’s participation in economic activities remains significant for countries at different stages of development. Time is now for investing in women and ensuring countries and the world can honor commitments and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals agreed upon to ensure a prosperous and sustainable world for generations to come.

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Read more about the article Turning Promises into Reality – The Business Case for Gender Equality in Achieving the SDGs
Gender Equality Scale Concept

Turning Promises into Reality – The Business Case for Gender Equality in Achieving the SDGs

As we enter a decade that will be decisive for both current and future generations, it is the world’s responsibility and within its power to make the next decade one of action and delivery for gender equality, sustainable development and inclusive growth. This requires urgent and focused policy-making that takes into account gender-specific impacts. Time is now for investing in women and ensuring countries and the world can honor commitments and achieve the Goals agreed upon to ensure a prosperous and sustainable world for generations to come.

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Read more about the article Evidence-Based Design of Fiscal Policies for Gender Equality

Evidence-Based Design of Fiscal Policies for Gender Equality

Evidence-Based Design of Fiscal Policies for Gender Equality SPEAKERS Sanjeev Gupta, Deputy Director IMF Fiscal Affairs Department (Moderator) Mayra Buvinic, Senior Fellow Center for Global Development Otaviano Canuto, World Bank Executive Director Stephan Klasen, Professor University of Gottingen Rohini Pande, Professor Harvard University

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Read more about the article Gender equality and economic growth in Brazil: A long-run analysis

Gender equality and economic growth in Brazil: A long-run analysis

This paper studies the long-run impact of policies aimed at fostering gender equality on economic growth in Brazil. The first part provides a brief review of gender issues in the country. The second part presents a gender-based, three-period OLG model that accounts for women’s time allocation between market work, child rearing, human capital accumulation, and home production. Bargaining between spouses depends on relative human capital stocks, and thus indirectly on access to infrastructure. The model is calibrated and various experiments are conducted, including investment in infrastructure, a reduction in gender bias in the market place, and a composite pro-growth, pro-gender reform program. The analysis showed that fostering gender equality, which may partly depend on the externalities that infrastructure creates in terms of women’s time allocation and bargaining power, may have a substantial impact on long-run growth in Brazil.

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Read more about the article On gender and growth: The role of intergenerational health externalities and women’s occupational constraints

On gender and growth: The role of intergenerational health externalities and women’s occupational constraints

This paper studies the growth effects of externalities associated with intergenerational health transmission, health persistence, and access to infrastructure (or lack thereof), which affects women's occupational choices. Following a brief review of the evidence on these issues, a gender-based overlapping generations (OLG) model of endogenous growth that captures these interactions is presented and its properties characterized. The endogeneity of mothers’ rearing time and rearing costs implies that improved access to infrastructure has in general an ambiguous effect on growth. Numerical experiments, based on a calibrated version of the model for low-income countries, show that it is possible for higher investment in infrastructure to actually reduce the steady-state growth rate. The possibility of multiple equilibria induced by an endogenous survival rate is also discussed, and so is the role of public policy in that context.

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