Modelling the asymmetric impact of economic growth and poverty on gender inequality: Evidence from India using nonlinear ARDL analysis

Abstract

The study is based on the premise that economic growth (henceforth EG) and poverty impact men and women differently. As a result, shocks to these variables cannot be expected to have a symmetric impact on gender inequality (henceforth GI). Rather, positive and negative shocks in poverty and EG impact men and women asymmetrically which necessitates the study of their relationship using an asymmetric rather than a symmetric approach. This study is the first to utilise nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) analysis and asymmetric cumulative dynamic multipliers to investigate the asymmetric impact of EG and poverty on GI in India using annual data over the period 1995–2021. Additionally, we construct a comprehensive index of GI, using principle component analysis (PCA), which is a maiden attempt to account reported crime against women, in addition to gender disparities in health, education, labour market and parliamentary representation. The results report that positive shocks in EG reduce GI and negative shocks increase it. However, negative shocks increase GI more than positive shocks decrease it justifying the asymmetry. With respect to the asymmetric impact of poverty on GI, the study finds that both positive and negative shocks in poverty increase GI, however, the positive shock in poverty has a larger impact than the negative one. This is in consonance with the literature on intrahousehold gender disparities in consumption. The study finds new evidence that EG and poverty reduction favours men more than women and recommends its inclusion in policy formulation.