Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T22:47:51.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A COMPUTABLE OVERLAPPING GENERATIONS MODEL FOR GENDER AND GROWTH POLICY ANALYSIS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2015

Pierre-Richard Agénor
Pierre-Richard Agénor*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester and Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research
*
Address correspondence to Pierre-Richard Agénor, Hallsworth Professor of International Macroeconomics and Development Economics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; e-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper develops a computable overlapping generations (OLG) model for gender and growth policy analysis that brings to the fore the role of access to public infrastructure. The model accounts for human and physical capital accumulation, intra- and intergenerational health persistence, fertility choices, and women's time allocation between market work, child rearing, and home production. Bargaining between spouses and gender bias, in the form of discrimination in the work place and mothers' time allocation between daughters and sons, are also accounted for. The model is calibrated for a low-income country and various experiments are conducted, including improved access to infrastructure, an increase in subsidies to child care, a reduction in gender bias, and a composite gender-based reform program to assess the role of policy complementarities. The results illustrate the importance of accounting for changes in women's time allocation in assessing the impact of public policy on economic growth.

Keywords

Gender-based OLG Growth ModelsWomen's Time AllocationPublic InfrastructureGender-Related Policies
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 11 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agénor, Pierre-Richard (2008) Health and infrastructure in a model of endogenous growth. Journal of Macroeconomics 30, 1407–1422.Google Scholar
Agénor, Pierre-Richard (2010) A theory of infrastructure-led development. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 34, 932–950.Google Scholar
Agénor, Pierre-Richard (2011) Schooling and public capital in a model of endogenous growth. Economica 78, 108–132.Google Scholar
Agénor, Pierre-Richard (2012) Public Capital, Growth and Welfare. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Agénor, Pierre-Richard (2015) Public capital, health persistence and poverty traps. Journal of Economics 115, 103–131.Google Scholar
Agénor, Pierre-Richard and Agénor, Madina (2014) Infrastructure, women's time allocation, and economic development. Journal of Economics 113, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agénor, Pierre-Richard and Alpaslan, Baris (February 2013) Child Labour, Intra-household Bargaining, and Economic Growth. Working paper 181, Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research.Google Scholar
Agénor, Pierre-Richard and Canuto, Otaviano (2015) Gender equality and economic growth in Brazil: A long-run analysis. Journal of Macroeconomics 43, 155–172.Google Scholar
Agénor, Pierre-Richard, Canuto, Otaviano, and da Silva, Luiz Pereira (2014) On gender and growth: The role of intergenerational health externalities and women's occupational constraints. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 30, 132–147.Google Scholar
Anderson, Siwan and Eswaran, Mukesh (2009) What determines female autonomy? Evidence from Bangladesh. Journal of Development Economics 90, 179–191.Google Scholar
Andreassen, Leif (May 2004) Mortality, Fertility and Old Age Care in a Two-Sex Growth Model. Discussion paper 378, Statistics Norway, Research Department.Google Scholar
Andres, Luis A., Briceno, Bertha, Chase, Claire, and Echenique, Juan A. (February 2014) Sanitation and Externalities: Evidence from Early Childhood Health in Rural India. Policy research working paper 6737, World Bank.Google Scholar
Angel-Urdinola, Diego and Wodon, Quentin (2010) Income generation and intra-household decision making: A gender analysis for Nigeria. In Arbache, Jorge Saba, Kolev, Alexandre, and Filipiak, Ewa (eds.), Gender Disparities in Africa's Labor Market, pp. 381–406. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Basu, Kaushik (2006) Gender and say: A model of household behavior with endogenously-determined balance of power. Economic Journal 116, 558–580.Google Scholar
Behrman, Jere R. (2009) Early life nutrition and subsequent education, health, wage, and intergenerational effects. In Spence, Michael and Lewis, Maureen (eds.), Health and Growth, pp. 167–183. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Bhalotra, Sonia and Umana-Aponte, Marcela (March 2010) The Dynamics of Women's Labour Supply in Developing Countries. Unpublished, University of Bristol.Google Scholar
Blackden, C. Mark, Canagarajah, Sudharshan, Klasen, Stephan, and Lawson, David (April 2006) Gender and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Issues and Evidence. Research paper 2006/37, UNU-Wider.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackden, C. Mark and Wodon, Quentin (2006) Gender, Time Use, and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Bom, Pedro R. and Ligthart, Jenny E. (2014) What have we learned from three decades of research on the productivity of public capital? Journal of Economic Surveys 28, 889–916.Google Scholar
Bongaarts, John (2013) The implementation of preferences for male offspring. Population and Development Review 39, 185–208.Google Scholar
Boucekkine, Raouf, Desbordes, Rodolphe, and Latzer, Hélène (2009) How do epidemics induce behavioral changes? Journal of Economic Growth 14, 233–264.Google Scholar
Brenneman, Ada, and Kerf, Michel (December 2002) Infrastructure and Poverty Linkages: A Literature Review. Unpublished, World Bank.Google Scholar
Buvinic, Mayra, Lunde, Trine, and Sinha, Nistha (July 2010) Investing in Gender Equality: Looking Ahead. Economic premise note 22, World Bank.Google Scholar
Cavalcanti, Tiago V. de V. and Tavares, José (March 2011) Women prefer larger governments: Female labor supply and public spending. Economic Inquiry 49, 155–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleland, J. and van Ginneken, J.K. (1988) Maternal education and child survival in developing countries: The search for pathways of influence. Social Science and Medicine 27, 1357–1368.Google Scholar
Cole, Matthew A. and Neumeyer, Eric (2006) The impact of poor health on total factor productivity. Journal of Development Studies 42, 918–938.Google Scholar
Dabla-Norris, Era, Brumby, Jim, Kyobe, Annette, Mills, Zac, and Papageorgiou, Chris (2012) Investing in public investment: An index of public investment efficiency. Journal of Economic Growth 17, 235–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De la Croix, David and Licandro, Omar (2013) ‘The child is the father of man’: Implications for the demographic transition. Economic Journal 123, 236–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De la Croix, David and Donckt, Marie Vander (2010) Would empowering women initiate the demographic transition in least developed countries? Journal of Human Capital 4, 85–129.Google Scholar
Dinkelman, Taryn (2011) The effects of rural electrification on employment: New evidence from South Africa. American Economic Review 101, 3078–3108.Google Scholar
Doepke, Matthias (2005) Child mortality and fertility decline: Does the Barro–Becker model fit the facts? Journal of Population Economics 18, 337–366.Google Scholar
Doepke, Matthias and Tertilt, Michèle (February 2014) Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development? Working paper 19888, National Bureau of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Doss, Cheryl R. (November 1996) Women's Bargaining Power in Household Economic Decisions: Evidence from Ghana. Staff paper 13517, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.Google Scholar
Doss, Cheryl R. (2013) Intrahousehold bargaining and resource allocation in developing countries. World Bank Research Observer 28, 52–78.Google Scholar
Du, Qingyuan and Wei, Shang-Jin (May 2010) A Sexually Unbalanced Model of Current Account Imbalances. Working paper 16000, National Bureau of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Foster, Vivien and Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia (eds.) (2010) Africa's Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Frankenberg, Elizabeth and Thomas, Duncan (2003) Measuring power. In Quisumbing, Agnes R. (ed.), Household Decisions, Gender, and Development, pp. 29–36. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.Google Scholar
Galor, Oded and Weil, David N. (1996) The gender gap, fertility, and growth. American Economic Review 86, 374–387.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Jeremy and Seshadri, Ananth (2005) Technological progress and economic transformation. In Aghion, Philippe and Durlauf, Steven N. (eds.), Handbook of Economic Growth, Vol. 1B, pp. 1225–1273. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Jeremy, Seshadri, Ananth, and Yorukoglu, Mehmet (2005) Engines of liberation. Review of Economic Studies 72, 109–133.Google Scholar
Guerriero, Marta (March 2012) The Labour Share of Income around the World: Evidence from a Panel Dataset. Working paper 32/2012, Institute for Development Policy and Management.Google Scholar
Guner, Nezih, Kaygusuz, Remzi, and Ventura, Gustavo (2012) Taxing women: A macroeconomic analysis. Journal of Monetary Economics 59, 111–128.Google Scholar
Haddad, Lawrence, Hoddinott, John, and Alderman, Harold (June 1994) Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: An Overview. Working paper 1255, World Bank.Google Scholar
International Labour Office (2011) Global Employment Trends 2011: The Challenge of a Jobs Recovery. Geneva: International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Jones, Larry E. and Schoonbroodt, Alice (2010) Complements versus substitutes and trends in fertility choice in dynastic models. International Economic Review 51, 671–699.Google Scholar
Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem (2003) A stochastic model of mortality, fertility, and human capital investment. Journal of Development Economics 70, 103–118.Google Scholar
Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem (2008) The uncertain lifetime and the timing of human capital investment. Journal of Population Economics 21, 557–572.Google Scholar
Kimura, Masako and Yasui, Daishin (2010) The Galor–Weil gender gap model revisited: From home to market. Journal of Economic Growth 15, 323–351.Google Scholar
Koolwal, Gayatri and Ranjan, Ray (March 2002) Estimating the Endogenously Determined Intrahousehold Balance of Power and Its Impact on Expenditure Pattern: Evidence from Nepal. Policy research working paper 2814, World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koolwal, Gayatri and van de Walle, Dominique (2013) Access to water, women's work and child outcomes. Economic Development and Cultural Change 61, 369–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lagerlöf, Nils-Petter (2003) Gender equality and long-run growth. Journal of Economic Growth 8, 403–426.Google Scholar
Maitra, Pushkar (2004) Parental bargaining, health inputs and child mortality in India. Journal of Health Economics 23, 259–291.Google Scholar
McGuire, James W. (2006) Basic health care provision and under-5 mortality: A cross-national study of developing countries. World Development 34, 405–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahon, Walter W. (2004) The social and external benefits of education. In Johnes, Geraint and Johnes, Jill (eds.), International Handbook on the Economics of Education, pp. 211–259. Northampton, UK: Elgar.Google Scholar
McNamara, Paul E., Ulimwengu, John M., and Leonard, Kenneth L. (July 2010) Do Health Investments Improve Agricultural Productivity? Lessons from Agricultural Household and Health Research. Discussion paper 1012, International Food Policy Research Institute.Google Scholar
Moe, Karine S. (1998) Fertility, time use, and economic development. Review of Economic Dynamics 1, 699–718.Google Scholar
Momota, Michiko (2000) The gender gap, fertility, subsidies and growth. Economics Letters 69, 401–405.Google Scholar
Morrison, Andrew R., Raju, D., and Sinha, N. (September 2007) Gender Equality, Poverty and Economic Growth. Policy research working paper 4349, World Bank.Google Scholar
Nopo, Hugo, Daza, Nancy, and Ramos, Johanna (2012) Gender earnings gaps around the world: A study of 64 countries. International Journal of Manpower 33, 464–513.Google Scholar
Olivetti, Claudia (2006) Changes in women's hours of market work: The role of returns to experience. Review of Economic Dynamics 9, 557–587.Google Scholar
Osang, Thomas and Sarkar, Jayanta (2008) Endogenous mortality, human capital and endogenous growth. Journal of Macroeconomics 30, 1423–1445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quisumbing, Agnes R. (2010) Gender and household decision-making in developing countries: A review of evidence. In Chant, Sylvia (ed.), The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty, pp. 161–166. Aldershot, UK: Elgar.Google Scholar
Sah, Raaj K. (1991) The effects of child mortality changes on fertility choice and parental welfare. Journal of Political Economy 99, 582–606.Google Scholar
Sianesi, Barbara and Reenen, John V. (2003) The returns to education: Macroeconomics. Journal of Economic Surveys 17, 157–200.Google Scholar
Smith, Lisa C. and Haddad, Lawrence (May 2000) Explaining Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries: A Cross-Country Analysis. Research report 111, International Food Policy Research Institute.Google Scholar
Smith, Lisa C., Ramakrishnan, Usha, Ndiaye, Aida, Haddad, Lawrence, and Martorell, Reynaldo (2003) The importance of women's status for child nutrition in developing countries. In Quisumbing, Agnes R. (ed.), Household Decisions, Gender, and Development, pp. 41–50. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.Google Scholar
Summers, Lawrence H. (1994) Investing in All the People: Educating Women in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
UNESCO (2008) Overcoming Inequality: Why Governance Matters. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
UNICEF (2007) The State of the World's Children. Annual Report. New York: UNICEF Publications.Google Scholar
Vermeulen, Frederic (2002) Collective household models: Principles and main results. Journal of Economic Surveys 16, 533–564.Google Scholar
World Bank (2011a) Gender Equality and Development. World Development Report 2012. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
World Bank (2011b) Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs. Global Monitoring Report. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2005) The World Health Report 2005—Make Every Mother and Child Count. Geneva: WHO Publications.Google Scholar
Xu, Zeyu (June 2007) A Survey on Intra-household Models and Evidence. Unpublished, American Institute for Research.Google Scholar
Zhang, J., Zhang, Jie, and Li, T. (1999) Gender bias and economic development in an endogenous growth model. Journal of Development Economics 59, 497–425.Google Scholar