Economic Benefits of gender equality: comparing EU and BRICS countries

Abstract

Introduction. In the modern economy the problems of scientific analysis shift the focus from the subject area of gender inequality to gender equality, and special significance is attached to assessing the impact of gender on the social welfare. At the same time, it is noted that developed and developing countries currently have differences in the quality and quantity of goals achieved to address the issue of gender equality. The aim of the article is to assess the economic benefits of gender equality for a group of countries in the European Union and BRICS. Materials and methods. Empirical analysis was based on the construction of regression econometric models that assess the impact on the welfare of the country (GDP) of gender equality in combination with basic macroeconomic factors. Fixed effects regression models have the best descriptive capacity for the EU and BRICS countries, which was verified by standard econometric tests. The information base of the study was made up of official statistics from the reports of the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations. Results and Discussion. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the level of gender equality has a positive effect on the economic development of both the EU countries and the BRICS; a comparison of the results of the constructed econometric models for groups of EU and BRICS countries showed that gender equality has a statistically significant impact on the economic development of countries in each group, and in the BRICS countries it is stronger, so with an increase in gender equality by one, GDP per capita increases by 3.4172 vs. 0.4647 in EU countries. The inclusion of key socio-economic indicators in the analysis made it possible to compare the obtained impact, and it was found that the degree of influence of the equality index is not lower than the degree of influence of basic economic indicators. That increases the importance of this problem both at the level of the country and international associations. The conclusions obtained based on the analysis of macro statistics confirmed the conclusions of the researchers based on microeconomic data. Conclusions. The results of this study are aimed at understanding the problems of gender equality, its impact on the economic well-being of society, both in an individual country and in the world economy as a whole, which can be taken into account in designing the policy of the state and companies that together ensure progress in the development of equality between men and women.