From households to national statistics: Macroeconomic effects of Women's empowerment
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
Journal / Book Title
Economic Modelling
Abstract
How do shifts in intra-household gender dynamics affect the economy at large? This paper parametrizes intra-household gender-powered decision-making and endogenous distributions of income to allow for the aggregation of key macroeconomic variables. In equilibrium, we find that greater women's empowerment increases precautionary savings to offset low endowment realizations. The effect is stronger among poor households who hedge against hitting a subsistence bound. Given the boost in savings at the bottom of the distribution, more empowerment leads to less poverty and lower income inequality. Another equilibrium prediction of the model is an increase in the household's food intake regardless of income, reflecting women's greater preference for food compared to men. The model's predictions are mapped to Mexico's 2014 National Household Income and Expenditure Survey which identifies the gender of the head of the household. These predictions have policy implications in the areas of monetary policy, social policy, financial intermediation and banking.
DOI
10.1016/j.econmod.2019.01.024
Journal ISSN / Book ISBN
0264-9993
MSU Digital Commons Citation
San Vicente Portes, Luis; Atal, Vidya; and Juárez Torres, Miriam, "From households to national statistics: Macroeconomic effects of Women's empowerment" (2019). Department of Economics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 4.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/economics-facpubs/4
Published Citation
San Vicente Portes, Luis & Atal, Vidya & Juárez Torres, Miriam, 2019. "From households to national statistics: Macroeconomic effects of Women's empowerment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 286-294.