Trade liberalization and women empowerment in the Arab countries

IF 3.1 Q2 BUSINESS

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship Pub Date : 2023-01-03 DOI:10.1108/ijge-07-2022-0113

N. Saqfalhait, Khawlah AbdAlla Spetan, Taleb Awad-Warrad, M. Alomari

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Abstract

PurposeThis paper investigates the impact of trade liberalization measured by trade openness (OPN) and tariffs on women empowerment measured by the gender gap index and gender development index, for two groups of Arab countries divided based on their income levels using annual data for the period 1995–2020. The study also considers other factors that may influence the gender gap, such as GDP growth and the female unemployment rate. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues and explorers whether the effects of trade liberalization differ based on the countries' income levels.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the fully modified ordinary least squares (FM-OLS) regression model for heterogeneous cointegrated panels to examine the impact of trade liberalization on women empowerment. The study constructs an empirical two regression model of women empowerment measured by the gender gap model and gender development model for the two groups of higher-income countries and lower and middle-income countries.FindingsThe authors’ findings reveal that the impact of OPN on the gender gap varies between the two groups of Arab countries where more OPN within the higher-income group may increase the gender disparity, while it may reduce disparity within the lower and middle-income countries. In addition, GDP growth may reduce the gender disparity, while female unemployment raises the gender disparity between the two groups of countries in the long run. Findings also reveal that more OPN, tariffs and female unemployment may reduce gender development within the two groups, but more GDP growth may support the gender development in the long run.Originality/valueThis paper not only assesses the impact of trade liberalization on women empowerment generally, but also assess the women empowerment via two indices that are the gender gap and gender development in Arab countries which is – to the knowledge of the researchers – not yet investigated; further it explores if the effects of trade liberalization differs based on the countries' income levels.

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阿拉伯国家的贸易自由化和妇女赋权

目的利用1995-2020年期间的年度数据，研究了以贸易开放度衡量的贸易自由化和以性别差距指数和性别发展指数衡量的关税对两组阿拉伯国家妇女赋权的影响。该研究还考虑了可能影响性别差距的其他因素，如国内生产总值增长和女性失业率。本文的目的是解决这些问题，并探讨贸易自由化的影响是否因国家的收入水平而异。设计/方法/方法本研究采用完全修正的普通最小二乘（FM-OLS）回归模型对异质协整面板进行研究，以检验贸易自由化对妇女赋权的影响。本研究构建了一个基于性别差距模型和性别发展模型的妇女赋权实证双回归模型，用于衡量高收入国家和中低收入国家这两个群体。研究结果作者的研究结果表明，两组阿拉伯国家的OPN对性别差距的影响各不相同，高收入群体中更多的OPN可能会增加性别差距，而中低收入国家中的OPN则可能会减少性别差距。此外，从长远来看，国内生产总值的增长可能会缩小性别差距，而女性失业则会加剧这两组国家之间的性别差距。调查结果还表明，更多的OPN、关税和女性失业可能会减少这两个群体的性别发展，但从长远来看，更多的GDP增长可能会支持性别发展。原创性/价值本文不仅评估了贸易自由化对妇女赋权的总体影响，还通过两个指标评估了妇女赋权，即阿拉伯国家的性别差距和性别发展，据研究人员所知，这两个指标尚未调查；此外，它还探讨了贸易自由化的影响是否因国家的收入水平而异。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship BUSINESS-

CiteScore

7.40

自引率

15.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： Launched in 2009, the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (IJGE) aims to facilitate the natural evolution of the field of gender and entrepreneurship by drawing together the very best research contributions from around the world. The journal seeks to: -Provide a dedicated publication outlet for high calibre, international research of interest to scholars, entrepreneurs and policy makers in the field of gender and entrepreneurship -Offer a unique perspective on the practice of gender and entrepreneurship by including sections dedicated to practitioner and policy content -Support a more consistent global approach to the presentation of research in the field -Platform the work of dynamic young researchers and those who are in a position to offer new perspectives on this particular research area -Enable those active in the area as researchers, educators, trainers, practitioners, support personnel and policy makers to keep up to date with the field on an international level. The coverage of the journal includes, but is not limited to: Entrepreneurship, Female/Women’s entrepreneurship , Business, Management, Strategy, Gender, Economics, Internationalization, Marketing.