This paper draws on an expanded growth accounting framework to estimate the relative contribution of women to growth in SSA over the last few decades. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical analysis which attempts to quantify the relative contribution of women to growth in SSA from a growth accounting framework. Although the gender equality argument is predicated on the assumption that women’s economic empowerment is good for economic development, neither the scale of their relative contribution to growth nor the dynamics of change in that relative contribution are known. Rather, most empirical studies on gender and growth have focused on the identification of gender-related determinants of growth [Dollar and Gatti (1999), Balliamoune-Lutz and McGillivray (2009)].<sup>5</sup> Empirical results show that the relative contribution of women to growth in the region is positive, both during economic downturns and growth spurts. Women’s total contribution to aggregate growth exceeds one full percentage point in several countries. The positive contribution is largely attributed to the increased labor force participation rate of women and productivity enhancement through human capital accumulation, especially following the narrowing of educational gender gap. Five-year trending estimated averages show that the relative contribution remains positive from the period of large output contraction in the 1980s to the post-HIPC growth rebounds.

Empirical results also highlight important variations across countries, with statistically significant colonial effects. On average the contribution of women to growth is higher in former British colonies than among former French colonies. However, the stronger performance of English-speaking countries is achieved at the crest of a rapid reduction in the educational gender gap and a much stronger and robust economic growth, suggesting that a reverse causality may also be at play (whereby the process of loosening traditional norms and colonial constructs may also be partly driven by changes along the growth path).

At the same time, attempts to take women’s contribution to growth and economic development fully into account may be constrained by measurement problems, particularly the absence of valuation of home-produced goods and informal sector production, though this is not specific to SSA.<sup>6</sup> Despite the changing nature of traditional norms and colonial constructs, the bulk of women’s contribution to growth in the region remains in home and informal sector production, which are not always fully accounted for in national income and product accounts. As such average contributions of women to growth from the framework may be underestimated [Landefeld and McCulla (2000)].<sup>7</sup> The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of gender inequality and growth dynamics in the region, with emphasis on colonial constructs and social norms which shaped gender production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Section 3 proposes a gender-based growth accounting framework for estimating the relative contribution of women to growth. Section 4 discusses empirical results and main findings. Section 5 concludes and discusses policy implications.

> 5 For instance, see Balliamoune-Lutz and McGillivray for empirical evidence on the nature of the relationship between gender inequalities in human development (education and literacy) and growth in SSA.

> 6 India is one of the few countries which have attempted to account for informal sector production in estimating national income and product accounts in the developing world.

> 7 The informal sector could account for 78% of non-agricultural employment in SSA [Charmes (1998)].

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