Journal of Economic Policy and Management Issues (ISSN: 2958-6313)

Exploring gender disparity and economic growth in India: An ARDL approach

S. Gupta — 2024-12-31

This study investigated the relationship between economic growth and gender disparity in India from 1991 to 2021. For gender disparity, the gender parity index (GPI) for gross primary and secondary school enrollment is used as a proxy. The results of the ARDL bound test reveal that there is a presence of long-run association among the variables. Also, the results highlight the positive association between gross enrollment ratio (GER) and economic growth. On the contrary, there is a negative impact on the female labor force and economic growth, which showcases the alarming situation for India as good education for females is not percolating towards female labor force participation, thereby negatively impacting economic growth. As gender disparity is a major obstacle in achieving high economic growth, the study suggests that it is imperative that both government and non-governmental organizations work collaboratively to produce an environment that fosters gender equality and empowers women across all sectors of Indian society. Policy makers should focus on societal education to identify and change behaviours that suppress women, utilize technology to promote women's empowerment, and collaborate with governmental and non-governmental organizations.

An empirical analysis of gender disparities in employment in South Africa: A Yun decomposition approach

S. Chivasa — 2024-12-31

South Africa, the economic giant of Southern Africa, is still struggling to eliminate gender labour market inequalities, especially the gender employment gap, despite efforts made by the post-Apartheid government. This study aims to analyse the sources of gender labour inequalities in the South African labour market concerning labour force participation and employment. The sources of gender labour market inequalities were analysed using the cross-sectional data from South African labour Market Dynamics, the probit regression, the Yun (2005) decomposition techniques and the inverse Mill’s ratio to control for sample selection bias. The study focused on observable and measurable factors only. The study's results revealed that marital status, education, age and province of origin were the major drivers of the female employment gap of 0.688 and 0.0451. Females in South Africa were also found to be subjected to female employment discrimination with a perceived discrimination likelihood of 0.0766 and 0.106 when using expanded and strict definitions of unemployment respectively. More of the female employment gap was attributed to differences in individual characteristics.

The impact of COVID-19 incidence, vulnerability and business closure on wages in Kenya

D.K. Manda — 2024-12-31

This study analyses the impact of COVID-19 incidence, vulnerability and business closures due to COVID-19 on wages. Further, it assesses the effectiveness of the government tax relief measures implemented to cushion workers from the negative impact of the pandemic. Analysis based on a high-frequency panel data collected in 2020 and 2021 is carried out using a Control Function Approach. The results show that COVID-19 incidence significantly reduces wages, while COVID-19 vulnerability and business closure have an insignificant effect on wages. Further, the government tax relief measures put in place to cushion workers from the negative impact of COVID-19 helped alleviate the negative effect of COVID-19 on wages. Urban dwellers benefitted more from government tax relief measures and were worse off in the period following the end of the government tax relief measures. This study provides evidence to validate tax relief measures undertaken by the government to cushion workers’ wages from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and accounts for endogeneity and heterogeneity.