1887

OECD Trade Policy Papers

This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected trade policy studies prepared for use within the OECD.

NB. No. 1 to No. 139 were released under the previous series title OECD Trade Policy Working Papers.

English

Trade and gender

A Framework of analysis

Closing gender gaps makes good economic sense. Advancing the aim of women’s economic empowerment will require policy action across a wide range of areas, including increasing their participation in international trade. Although trade policies are not de jure discriminatory, they impact women and men differently due to dissimilar initial conditions. Mapping the channels and interactions between trade and gender for women as workers, consumers, and business owners shows that: (i) trade impacts women workers differently to men in part because they are employed in different sectors — in OECD countries, more often in services; (ii) trade lowers prices for consumers, which particularly increases the purchasing power of more vulnerable groups, where women are disproportionately represented; and (iii) higher trade costs impede smaller businesses’ access to international markets more than large firms, which impacts women who tend to own and lead smaller businesses. A framework is proposed for analysing the impacts of trade and trade policies on women that policy makers can use in order to ensure that trade and trade policies in their country support women’s economic empowerment.

English

Keywords: Trade facilitation, Women entrepreneurs, Gender equality, Gender impact analysis, Preferential Trade Agreements
JEL: F13: International Economics / Trade / Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations; J16: Labor and Demographic Economics / Demographic Economics / Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination; F66: International Economics / Economic Impacts of Globalization / Economic Impacts of Globalization: Labor
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