Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

January 2013

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of gender gaps in human capital on economic growth in developing countries. Based on data from the World Bank for the 1990-2010 period and a sample of seventy-eight developing economies, we find that the growth rate of GDP per capita is dependent on gross capital formation, the changes in both male and female life expectancy, the change in the gap between male and female life expectancy, the change in the proportion of the population having access to improved sanitation services, population growth, and the GDP per capita in 2000. It is observed that the estimated coefficient of one explanatory variable, namely, the change in female life expectancy, does not have the expected positive sign, possibly due to the collinearity between this variable and the change in male life expectancy as well as gross capital formation. Statistical results of such empirical examination will assist governments in developing countries identify areas that need to be improved upon reduce gender gaps in human capital—specifically those that address female life expectancy—in order to foster economic growth.

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Available at http://www.bapress.ca/ref/v3-4/1923-7529-2013-04-91-08.pdf

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