is equal to that of men. Intrepreted through the lens of a standard neoclassical growth model, that number is also equal to the gain in long run GDP (or long run GDP per capita) from an exogenous increase in female employment to erase gender employment gaps, keeping other things equal. The full GEGI has a similar interpretation and is of a similar size in most countries, but is defined in terms of closing gaps in better employment and other employment.

In closing, it is important to mention three caveats.<sup>44</sup> First, the GEGIs represent the GDP gains from closing a specific definition of gender employment gaps, via a particular thought experiment and through specific mechanisms. While this combination seems to be quantitatively important—and is highly correlated with alternatives—it does not take account of other types of gender gaps such as wage gaps or education gaps, or other types of mechanisms. The literature survey in the introduction cites a number of other channels—including TFP (innovation, entrepreurship), human capital and fertility. Second, the full GEGI assumes that the weights on better and other employment persist in the long run. This may understate gains from closing gender employment gaps if the total number of workers (male and female) in better employment changes along the development path. Finally, the definititons of employment and GDP are the standard ones based on market transactions. This does not include important types of work women do in the home (caring for children and the elderly, and other housework). Broader measures that include these types of activities as employment and value them as part of GDP would result in smaller gender employment gaps, and hence a smaller boost to GDP (as they are already included).

# **Supplementary Material:**

A spreadsheet with the (GEGI) for each country (and background data used in its construction) are available for download [link]and at the author’s website: https://sites.google.com/site/stevenpennings/

# **References**

Bertay, A, L. Dordevic, and C. Sever (2020) “Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: Evidence from Industry-Level Data” IMF working paper WP/20/119

- Cuberes D. and M. Teignier (2014) “Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Critical Review,” _Journal of International Development,_ 26, 260–276

- Cuberes D. and M. Teignier (2016) “Aggregate Effects of Gender Gaps in the Labor Market: A Quantitative Estimate”, _Journal of Human Capital_ 10(1).

Galor, O., and D. Weil (1996). “The Gender Gap, Fertility, and Growth.” _American Economic Review_ , 86(3), 374-387.

- Goldin C. (1995) “The U-Shaped Female Labor Force Function in Economic Development and Economic History.” In: Schultz TP (ed), _Investment in Women’s Human Capital and Economic Development_ . U. Chicago Press: 61-90.

- Goldman Sachs (2007) “Gender Inequality, Growth and Global Ageing”, Global Economics Paper No: 154

- Jones C. (2016) “The Facts of Economic Growth”, Chapter 1 in J.Taylor and H. Uhlig _Handbook of Macroeconomics, Volume 2A_ , Elsevier

- Kim Y. and N. Loayza (2019) “Productivity Growth: Patterns and Determinants Across the World” World Bank Policy Research WP 8852 [link]

- Klasen S. (2019) **“** What Explains Uneven Female Labor Force Participation Levels and Trends in Developing Countries?” _World Bank Research Observer_ , 34(2).

> 44 I thank Kathleen Beegle, Dimitria Gavalyugova, Aart Kraay, and Sergio Schmukler for suggesting these caveats.

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