Liberian Women Count: Evidence from a Macrosimulation of the Gender Dividend

Wendy Cunningham, World Bank
Mitja del Bono, World Bank
Sarika Gupta, World Bank
Mahesh Karra, Boston University
Joshua Wilde, Oxford University

Liberian women make significant economic contributions yet remain marginalized and are excluded from the same opportunities as men. In this study, we develop a macrosimulation model of the Gender Dividend that estimates the economic contributions of women and the societal costs incurred by excluding them from reaching their productive potential. Using data from Liberia, we first estimate the economic contributions that women make, including contributions that are made from non-tradeable sources of production such as housework and domestic chores. We then predict the potential economic contributions that women would be able to make if there were equality of opportunity and capability by gender (a closure of gender gaps) across a range of inputs to economic growth and productivity, including educational attainment, labor force participation, and wages. Our results indicate that 39 percent of economic activity in Liberia, measured by the aggregate output of labor, can be attributed to women. This proportion increases to 50.2 percent if gender gaps across the factor inputs were closed and 53 percent if we include contributions from non-tradeable production. The findings indicate that maximizing the potential of women would increase Liberia’s GDP by 10-25 percent, yielding significant gains to economic growth and development.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Population and Development, Economic Demography

See paper.