How Does Trade Openness and Economic Growth Affect Gender Gap: A Cross-Country Study

Abstract

Because Trade Openness, Economic Growth, and Gender Gap have been central to the discussion of development policies in recent decades. This study combined those variables to evaluate the impact of trade openness and economic growth on the gender gap in four selected regions, including 21 countries, using panel data analysis from 1990-2020. Three estimation models such as GMM, FM-OLS, and EGLS, have been used in this study to evaluate the impact between the variables; the findings of the GMM model confirmed a positive effect of trade openness on the gender gap measured by the wage and salaried gap, and a negative impact of economic growth on the gender gap. In contrast, the findings of the FM-OLS model confirmed a positive impact of trade openness on the gender gap measured by the labor gap and the negative impact of economic growth on the gender gap. Finally, the findings of the EGLS model confirmed a negative impact of trade openness on the gender gap measured by the education gap and a positive impact of economic growth on the gender gap. Keywords: Trade Openness, Economic Growth, Gender Gap, GMM, FM-OLS, EGLS. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/14-8-04 Publication date: April 30 th 2023