economic tool can create jobs, which will enhance women’s chances of having better livelihoods and help bridging the gender inequality.

# 1.2 Study Objectives

The study was inspired by the increasing evidence of growing gender wage gaps and declining female labor force participation and the little evidence on gender impacts of freer trade in general or green trade in particular. Comparisons of gendered economic impacts of free trade across these countries are impeded by the lack of a gender differentiated data set. Most of these quantitative analyses of trade reforms use global computable general equilibrium (CGE) models which illustrate the linkages between sectors within an economy and the linkages between countries. These global CGE models have become the standard quantitative tool in assessing the impacts of trade reforms on sectoral adjustments, patterns of production and trade, etc. and are mostly based on the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database, which is a multi-regional, multi-sectoral database designed to capture the economy-wide relationships among sectors in a region and interregional trade. These models have also been used to assess the impacts of other recent global shocks such as the food crisis and financial crisis, bioenergy mandates, demographic changes including migration, and climate change. However, since the present GTAP database does not contain a gendered employment database across countries and sectors and also does not isolate the commodities relevant for green trade. there have been no attempts at assessing the impacts of multilateral reforms using a gendered global model. To address this gap in the literature, this study aims to construct a gender differentiated database across countries and sectors.

The objectives of the study are therefore:

- To develop a gender differentiated employment and wages database in the current GTAP database version 9 for select South Asian economies across sectors and modify the standard GTAP model to recognize gender differentiated employment and wages.

- To identify goods and services related to green trade and split them as separate commodities in the newly constructed GTAP database and model.

- Using the newly constructed model and database, the study identifies targeted value chains and economic activities, particularly among green trade sectors, that will benefit women in South Asia.

The unique contribution of this study is to incorporate the gendered differentiated employment and wages into an empirical global CGE framework and also to differentiate ‘green trade’ commodities in the GTAP. The data set developed would help analyze economic activities related to trade that could benefit female labor force participation and wages. The understanding about gender outcomes when supported by data and analysis could enable governments to design better trade liberalization policies and programs and improve the targeting of sectors that would benefit women and reduce existing gender disparities over time in South Asian countries. Thus, the study would not only help in analyzing the gender dimensions of trade agreements but also in subsequent research on the gendered impacts of other global shocks.

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