The gender dynamics of public finance: a Chinese and cross-country analysis
Date
2014
Authors
Knight, Tabitha, author
Braunstein, Elissa, advisor
Tavani, Daniele, committee member
Seguino, Stephanie, committee member
Charlton, Sue Ellen, committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
This dissertation consists of four chapters, integrated with the goal of increasing the knowledge of ways in which fiscal policies affect women's welfare worldwide. First, we provide an overview of the literature relating fiscal policies, gendered employment, and growth, contribute a conceptual model of employment based on these relationships, and propose areas for future work. While we consider the direct relationship between scal policy and gendered employment, we also consider two indirect relationships where scal policy in influences employment through its eect on growth and the unpaid labor burden. Next, we direct our focus towards the Chinese economy as we present a synopsis of women's position in the labor market and discuss the historical patterns of production and social norms, the evolving structure of the Chinese economy, and the ways in which these changes in influence women's relative wages, employment opportunities, and mobility; we also include an examination of possible future Chinese growth policies and their potential impacts on women's relative welfare. Using the knowledge obtained in the first two parts of this dissertation, we provide an empirical study of gendered employment in China with a focus on public spending on social infrastructure. We find that public spending on education is associated with increases in gender equality in employment as well short-run economic growth via upward harmonization. Finally, we further extend our work to a world-wide analysis of the same and find that public spending on healthcare and education are positively related to women's relative employment via upward harmonization. In this dissertation we aim to increase the understanding of the relationship between public sector spending, specifically on social infrastructure, and women's relative welfare, and encourage future work to evaluate other development policies through a gendered lens in order to provide policy options for those aiming to increase economic development in a gender-sensitive manner.