The Impact of Economic Growth on Gender Inequality in Ethiopia

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the impact of economic growth on gender inequality in Ethiopia using time series data collected from UNDP and World Bank Development Indicators during the period 1985 to 2018. The Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Approach to Co-integration was applied in order to investigate the long-run relationship between gender inequality and economic growth, trade openness and government expenditure. The Bounds test shows that there is a stable long run relationship between the variables included in the study. The finding show the error correction term of the short run is statistically significant having desirable negative coefficient to restore equilibrium in dynamic model between short run and long run. The results of the study revealed that government expenditure found to have a negative significant effect on gender inequality, but economic growth and trade openness have a negative insignificant effect on gender inequality in the long run. Therefore, national policies designed to stimulate economic growth or to open up the economy to FDI should meet the requirement to equalise access to jobs for men and women, enhance the expansion of women’s access to economic opportunities relative to men, ease scarcity-related constraints which put pressure on households to discriminate against women and making pro-poor and gender-equitable government expenditures.

Keywords: Gender inequality, Economic Growth, Trade Openness, Government Expenditure, ARDL

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-7-04

Publication date: April 30^th 2022