Stephanie Seguino University of Kansas at Lawrence November 1, 2013 THE BLACK QUEEN OF HEARTS: GENDER AND “STICKY” PARADIGMS IN ECONOMICS.

Stephanie Seguino

University of Kansas at Lawrence

November 1, 2013

THE BLACK QUEEN OF HEARTS: GENDER AND “STICKY” PARADIGMS IN

ECONOMICS

THE BLACK QUEEN OF HEARTS?

HOW DID SOUTH KOREA MOVE FROM “BASKET CASE” IN 1960 TO DEVELOPED COUNTRY

BY1995?

Free markets and free trade? State-led development?

GENDER INEQUALITY AS IMPETUS TO EXPORT-LED GROWTH

STYLIZED FEATURES OF SIES

– Gender job segregation with women concentrated in export mfg. industries, and men in non-tradables.

– Exports are price elastic due to availability of substitutes in contrast to goods in oligopolistic non-tradables sector.

– Export firms are mobile.

– High-income HH and businesses save at a higher rate than workers; some (modest) evidence women save at higher rates than men (Seguino and Floro 2002).

– No priors on distributional nature of import propensities by class or gender.

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON EDUCATION-ADJUSTED GENDER WAGE GAP AND TRADE

GENDER AND STRUCTURALIST MACRO MODELLING

• Seguino (2000) – Growth accounting econometric analysis

• 21 SIEs

• Gender wage inequality Exports Forex K goods imports Productivity growth

• Blecker and Seguino (2002) – Two-sector macro model, mark-up pricing, exchange rate dynamics, short run.

• Seguino (2010) – Balance of payments constrained growth, short and long run.

THE EFFECT OF GENDER WAGE INEQUALITY ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN SEMI-INDUSTRIALIZED

ECONOMIES, 1975-99

-0.8

-0.4

0.0

0.4

0.8

1.2

1.6

-.3 -.2 -.1 .0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5

Gender Wage Gap

Per

Cap

ita G

DP

Gro

wth

197

5-99

LOESS Fit (degree = 1, span = 0.3000)

DEBATE ON EFFECT OF GENDER INEQUALITY ON GROWTH

• On the one hand, wage inequality stimulates growth in SIEs.

• Educational equality stimulates growth in developing countries (Klasen and Lamanna 2009).

• How to reconcile?

• Unit labor costs (μ= mark-up, b=labor coefficient).

STYLIZED FEATURES OF LIAES

• Men concentrated in export industries (commodities and cash crops);

• Women work as subsistence farmers (and a small portion in NTAEs);

• Women’s MPC higher than men’s;

• Modest evidence that men’s import propensity > women’s.

• Evidence that in productive resources to women farmers raises agricultural productivity and Y, potentially reducing food imports.

LONG-RUN GROWTH

Key components of model

• Potential output does not necessarily = demand

• Productivity growth is influenced by:

• physical capital accumulation

• human capacities development.

THE PRODUCTION OF LABOR: CARE WORK

Income transfers to women have larger effects on children's nutritional status than similar transfers to

men

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

South Africa Bangladesh Brazil

% c

han

ge in

ch

ild

's a

nth

rop

om

etr

ic

measu

re

Women's income Men's income

GENDER EQUALITY IN PRIMARY EDUCATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION IN SSA,

1990-2010

-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 500

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Change in F/M Primary Enrollment Rates 1991-2010

Cha

nge

in F

ood

Prod

uctio

n In

dex

1991

-201

0

EFFECT OF AUSTERITY AND PUBLIC SECTOR BUDGET CUTS

• ↑ Women’s care burden: • Cuts to child care subsidies

reduce paid work;

• Cuts for services to disabled children ↑ women’s unpaid labor;

• Declines in household income ↑ women’s time spent preparing food at home.

• Health budget cuts ↑ women’s time burden for care of sick.

TWO-WAY CAUSALITYg

Gender inequality

Economic Growth and Development

GENDER INEQUALITY IS JUST ONE TYPE

OF INTER-GROUP INEQUALITY

IT’S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT GENDER.

SOMETIMES IT’S ABOUT SINGLE PARENTS.

SOMETIMES ABOUT RACE/ETHNICITY.

US MONTHLY UNEMPLOYMENT RATES BY MARITAL STATUS, JAN. 1990-JAN. 2013

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES BY RACE/ETHNICITY, US, 1980-2012

THE SACRIFICE RATIO:EMPLOYMENT COSTS OF FIGHTING

INFLATION

Lowest for white men

Then white women

Then black men

Highest for black women

SHORT-SHORT RUN: IS CURVE

Where Z and X, respectively are:

,