CHAPTER - 5

CONCLUSION
 CHAPTER - 5
CONCLUSION

This chapter is separated into three sections. Section 5.1 summarises the findings on the
association between gender-based inequality and economic growth in South Asian countries.
Section 5.2 discusses the policy implications based on the empirical findings and section 5.3
attempts to advise the path of the future research investigations.

5.1 Summary of Empirical Findings

This study aims to empirically examine the association between gender inequality and
economic growth in South Asian economies namely; Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and
Sri Lanka during time period 1980-2020. In order to achieve this objective, the empirical
association between gender-based inequality in health, education, and labour force and
economic growth have been studied. A comprehensive and representative measure of gender
inequality is needed to compare the relative situation of women and men. Gender Inequality
Index is constructed by UNDP for this purpose. GII is a composite index comprising of
reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. The present study has also used
Gender Inequality Index to assess the above stated relationship.

A number of researches have studies and empirically inspected the association among gender
inequality and economic growth. These empirical studies have examined this association
using various methodologies and variables; however, most of the studies have been done on
the topic of gender inequality and economic growth, economies as a whole. Very limited such
studies are available on South Asia economies. Furthermore, previous existing studies used
educational gap and labour force participation gap as a proxy for gender inequality. The use
of gender inequality indicators in health, education and labour force participation could be a
suitable exercise in order to examine the association among gender inequality and economic
growth in South Asian region.

Study uses panel ARDL-PMG method to inspect long run and short run association between
gender inequality and economic growth. The direction of the causality has been inspected
using Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test results-based on Granger Causality test.

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Panel Evidence

The empirical findings on the relationship between gender inequality in health and
economic growth are summarised below:

 Result of empirical analysis finds long run association between gender inequality in heath
and economic growth. Results also indicate that gender inequality in life expectancy and
gender inequality in mortality rate positively impacts economic growth in South Asian
countries in short run and long run. The results indicate that gross fixed capital formation
have positive and significant impact on economic growth in both short and long run and
population growth negatively affects economic growth in long run but in short run it has
no significant impact on economic growth.

 When dependent variable is gender inequality in life expectancy; Result of empirical

analysis find long run association between gender inequality in life expectancy, economic
growth, gross fixed capital formation, and population growth. Results also indicate that
economic growth positively impacts gender inequality in life expectancy.

 When gender inequality in mortality rate is taken as a dependent variable. Result of

empirical analysis find long run association between gender inequality in mortality rate,
economic growth, and gross fixed capital formation and growth of population. Study
reveals that, economic growth has a positive and significant impact on gender inequality
in mortality rate.

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The empirical findings on the relationship between gender inequality in education and
economic growth are summarised below:

 Result of empirical analysis finds long run association between gender-based inequality
in education, economic growth, and gross fixed capital formation and population growth.
Findings indicate that gender-based inequality in secondary education, gender inequality
in tertiary education positively and population growth negatively impacts economic
growth in both short and long run. Gross fixed capital formation positively impacts
economic growth in both long and short term.

 When gender inequality in primary education is taken as a dependent variable. Study

reveals that economic growth positively impacts gender inequality in primary education
in long run. But we did not find any impact on gender inequality in primary education in
short run.

 When gender inequality in secondary education is taken as a dependent variable. Finding

reveals that economic growth positively impacts gender inequality in secondary education
in long run. We did not find any impact on gender-based inequality in case of secondary
education in short run.

 When gender inequality in tertiary education is taken as a dependent variable. Finding of

empirical analysis find long run association between gender inequality in tertiary
education, economic growth, gross fixed capital formation and population growth. Study
reveals that economic growth positively impacts gender inequality in tertiary education in
long run. We did not find any impact of variables on gender inequality in tertiary
education in short run.

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The empirical findings on the relationship between gender inequality in labour force
participation and economic growth are summarised below:

 Result of empirical analysis find long run connection between economic growth, gender
inequality in labour force, gross fixed capital formation, and population growth. Results
also indicate that gender inequality in labour force and population growth positively
impacts economic growth in long run. Gross fixed capital formation effects economic
growth positive and significantly in long run only. We did not find any impact of these
variables on economic growth in short run.

 When dependent variable is gender inequality in labour force; Results of empirical

analysis find long run association between gender inequality in labour force, economic
growth, gross fixed capital formation, and population growth. Study reveals that
economic growth positively impacts gender inequality in labour force participation in
long run. Economic growth and population growth do not affect gender inequality in
labour force in short run.

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The empirical findings on the relationship between gender inequality index and
economic growth are summarised below:

 Result of empirical analysis finds long run relationship between economic growth, gender
inequality index, and gross fixed capital formation and population growth. Results also
indicate that gender inequality index and population growth negatively impact growth of
the economy in long runs and Gross fixed capital formation positively affects growth of
the economy in short and long run.

 When gender inequality index is taken as a dependent variable. Result of empirical

analysis finds long run association between gender inequality index, economic growth,
capital formation, and population growth. Findings also show that economic growth,
gross fixed capital formation, and population growth negatively affect gender inequality
index in long run. These variables do not affect gender inequality index in short run.

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Country Wise Evidence
The empirical findings on the relationship between gender inequality in health and
economic growth are summarised below:

 When economic growth is the dependent variable, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan
have a negative and significant ECT which implies explanatory variables to adjust back to
equilibrium. When gender inequality in life expectancy is dependent variable, Nepal and
Sri Lanka only have a negative and significant ECT which implies explanatory variables
to adjust back to equilibrium. When dependent variable is gender inequality in mortality
rate; Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a negative and significant ECT
which implies independent variables to adjust back to equilibrium. Coefficient of RLE
and RIM are having a negative but insignificant effect on GDPG in every economy it
implies that, it does have any significant effect on economic growth in short run. A
positive and significant relationship found among gross fixed capital formation and
economic growth in all economies, meaning that capital formation in economies is
boosting the growth of the economy.

The empirical findings on the relationship between gender inequality in education and
economic growth are summarised below:

 When economic growth is the dependent variables, all five countries have a negative and
significant ECT which implies explanatory variables to adjust back to equilibrium. When
dependent variable is gender inequality in primary education; Bangladesh, India, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka have a have a negative and significant ECT which implies explanatory
variables to adjust back to equilibrium. When gender inequality in secondary education is
the dependent variable, all five countries have a negative and significant ECT which
implies explanatory variables to adjust back to equilibrium. When dependent variable is
gender inequality in tertiary; Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have an adverse and
significant ECT which implies independent variables to correct back to equilibrium.
Coefficient of gender inequality in primary education, secondary education, tertiary
education and population growth having a negative and significant effect on economic
growth in every economy and coefficient of gross fixed capital formation having a
positive and significant value except India.

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The empirical findings on the relationship between gender inequality in labour force
and economic growth are summarised below:

 When dependent variable is economic growth; India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a
negative and significant ECT which implies explanatory variables to adjust back to
equilibrium and when gender inequality in labour force participation is dependent
variables. Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a negative and significant ECT
which implies independent variables to correct back to equilibrium. Coefficient of gender
inequality in labour force and growth of population is having an adverse but insignificant
effect on growth in every country. Coefficient of gross fixed capital formation is having
an adverse and significant effect on economic growth in all countries. Coefficient of
economic growth, gross fixed capital formation and population growth are having a
positive and significant effect on gender based-inequality in labour force in all countries
except for economic growth in Sri Lanka.

The empirical findings on the relationship between gender inequality index and
economic growth are summarised below:

 When economic growth is the dependent variable, all countries except Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka are showing negative and significant ECT which implies independent variables to
correct back to equilibrium. Coefficient of gender inequality index and PG are having a
negative but insignificant effect on economic growth in every economy except Pakistan,
it implies that is does not have any significant affect on growth in short run. In Pakistan
coefficients of gender inequality index and population growth is having an insignificant
value. And when gender inequality index is the dependent variables, all countries except
India are showing negative and significant ECT which implies independent variables to
correct back to equilibrium. Coefficient of economic growth is having an adverse and
significant effect on gender inequality index in every economy except Bangladesh and
Nepal, it implies that is does have significant effect on economic growth in short run. In
Bangladesh and Nepal, coefficient of economic growth is having positive and significant
value which implies that, economic growth is increasing the gender inequality index in
the given countries.

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Findings of the resent study lead to the following conclusions:

All forms of gender inequality whether it is in health, education and labour force
participation tend to increase economic growth in South Asian countries. Firstly, results
indicate that gender inequality in health positively impacts economic growth in short run and
long run. Second, gender inequality in secondary and tertiary education increase economic
growth in long run while gender inequality in primary education increases economic growth
only in short run. Third, gender inequality in labour force participation increases growth of
the economies in the long run but it is not having any significant effect in short run. Forth,
economic growth positively impacts to gender inequality in health, education and labour
force in long run. Lastly, gender inequality measured through gender inequality index found
to be negatively affecting economic growth and economic growth is affecting gender
inequality index negatively in long run, Increase in gender inequality when measured as a
composite index hampers GDP growth.

Findings of the study also supported by these studies; Khan et al. (2016), Seguino (2000),
Busse and Spielmann (2006), Barro and Lee (1994) Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995) and
Niimi (2009). Niimi (2009) state that gender inequality is significant especially in South
Asian region and Seguino (2000) state that Asian economies that have discrimination against
women the most grew faster, gender discrimination and low female participation stimulate
investment.

5.2 Policy Implications

Based on the empirical findings present study has the following policy implications:

 Gender inequality in health, education, and labour force participation essentially require
solid policy agenda to sustained long term economic growth in South Asian region so the
gender equality will promote growth. At the cost of girl‘s health, education and labour
force participation, economic growth can be achieved but it will destroy the economic and
social structure of the region. Policies should be made in such a manner that parents get
encouraged to educate their girl child. To achieve gender equality in terms of health
outcomes it is required to give a special attention to develop a robust health care structure.
Economic growth in south Asia is not leading to gender equality rather growth promotes
inequality. Growth strategy in these countries must be gender inclusive.

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 Gender inequalities in labour force participation also require implementing policies to
ensure safety of women at work place so that they are encouraged to access the
employment opportunities in the labour market. These steps will not only promote gender
equality in the society but also promotes the economic growth. Iceland is the best
example for gender equal country in the world.

 Gender budgeting can be a policy option for the government to endorse gender equality
through the budget against persistent gender. According to world economic forum‘s
global gender gap index report 2022 Iceland got the highest score of 0.91, as gender
budgeting policy is practiced by the government (Gíslason and Símonardóttir, 2018).

 To reduce the overall gender inequality to promote economic growth in more appropriate
way, multi-pronged strategy needs to be implemented like; policy formulation, proper
implementation and awareness building.

5.3 Scope for the Future Research

Present study attempts to examine the relationship between gender inequality and economic
growth. Gender inequality is examined in three dimensions i.e. health, education, and labour
force participation. However future research can be done by using other dimensions of gender
inequality such as inequality in political participation. Further this study did not control for
the social, cultural and religious differences across region which can spuriously affect the
results.

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