| Abstract: |
The measurement of gender inequalities has become an important topic in the
academic literature. First, appropriate indicators are needed to compare the
relative situation of women in developing countries. Second, there is renewed
attention given to the relationship between gender inequality and economic
growth. Measuring gender inequalities contributes to knowing whether greater
inequality promotes or hampers growth. The aim of this paper is twofold.
First, the Gender Inequalities Index (GII) is built through a new methodology
using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), which determines endogenously
the weight of each variable. The GII avoids comparison between countries and
ranking. Second, the GII is used to study the relationship between gender
inequalities and economic growth using seemingly unrelated regressions.
Results show large variations between regions: South Asia has the worst score
with an average of 0.63, Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East and North Africa
follow with an average of 0.48 and 0.46 respectively. These situations lead to
reducing the potential growth rate by 4% in South Asia and 3% in Sub-Saharan
Africa and Middle East and North Africa countries. -- |