Does Gender Inequality Reduce Growth and Development? Evidence from Cross-Country Regressions

Using cross-country and panel regressions, this paper investigates
to what extent gender inequality in education and employment may
reduce growth and development. The paper finds a considerable
impact of gender inequality on economic growth which is robust to
changes in specifications and controls for potential endogeneities.
The results suggest that gender inequality in education has a
direct impact on economic growth through lowering the average
quality of human capital. In addition, economic growth is
indirectly affected through the impact of gender inequality on
investment and population growth. Point estimates suggest that
between 0.4-0.9 % of the differences in growth rates between East
Asia and Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East can be
accounted for by the larger gender gaps in education prevailing in
the latter regions. Moreover, the analysis shows that gender
inequality in education prevents progress in reducing fertility and
child mortality rates, thereby compromising progress in well-being
in developing countries.