Gender as a Macro Economic Variable

Abstract

This chapter will analyse how gender can be used in a meaningful way in macroeconomic analysis. The challenge is that gender cannot be measured easily at the macro level. This is either because current gender variables are one-dimensional and miss out much gender –relevant information, or because relevant gender variables are available only for a small group of countries and a limited number of years. Another reason why gender is so much absent in macro economics is that it is not recognized as part and parcel of economic processes and policies. At most, it is recognized to be a minor influential exogenous variable – not part of the economic system. Hence, when we do see gender appearing in macro-level analysis it is in a rather limited way, for example in country level poverty analyses, where one or more gender-aware Millennium Development Goals are included, or in cross-country labour market studies in which differences in male and female labour force participation or the gender wage gap are included. For example, in a study on the economic losses of missing the Millennium Development Goals on gender equality, Klasen and Abu-Ghaida (2004) have calculated that off-track countries are likely to suffer between 0.1 and 0.3 percentage points per capita growth. Another example is shown in various analyses on EU economic growth in relation to an increasing dependency ratio due to the aging population. In such studies the relatively low female labour force participation rate has been identified as a constraint on economic growth and on the financial sustainability of pension systems. But this treats gender relations and gender inequalities simply as constraint on economic development, not as a variable that is partly determined in the economy itself. The problem when gender is so marginalized in macroeconomic research is that it remains invisible at the macro level of research and policy advise.