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Equality and Sustainable development in EU countries – a comparative study |
| Marta Hozer-Koćmiel 1, Ewa Rumińska-Zimny 2 |
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1. University of Szczecin, Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Statistics (WNEIZ), 64, Mickiewicza St., Szczecin 71-101, Poland |
| Abstract |
| Studies which aim at quantifying the relationship between economic growth and gender equality show a strong and positive correlation between the two dimensions. However, the way the GDP is calculated is subject to serious criticism pointing out that, among others, it ignores goods and services which are provided outside the market, such as household production and work, and misses some costs, such as environmental pollution or treating speculative bubbles as the GDP increase. New measures of progress are still under discussion but clearly the thinking is along the concept of the HDI – Human Development Index, introduced by the UNDP, which incorporates not only the GDP per capita but also life expectancy and the level of education.
The results of literature studies on the relation between the economic growth and gender equality have made the authors believe that it is necessary to take a broader view on the subject of their interest and to include the category of Sustainable Development into their considerations as it is the area that meets social, economic and environmental needs of present and future generations. Therefore the aim of the article is to propose a Taxonomic Measure of Sustainable Development and to measure its relation with gender equality in EU. The research follows the scheme: i) the construction of the TMSD; ii) the regression analysis of the TMSD and chosen gender equality aspects, and iii) the comparative analysis of the TMSD in 2004 and 2012 followed by the interpretation of the results. The TMSD measure illustrates well how strongly differentiated the EU countries are in terms of sustainable development. The most favourable situation was observed in Scandinavian countries and Norway. In most of the countries the level of sustainable development rose over the time of observation. The research has shown that the more equality between men and women the more sustainably developed the economy. This is probably because women live in a more sustainable way than men. References Antonopoulos R., Hirway I. (2010), Unpaid Work and the Economy. Gender, Time Use and Poverty in Developing Countries, Palgrave Macmillan Klasen S., Lamanna F. (2009), The Impact of Gender Inequality in Education and Employment on Economic Growth: New Evidence for a Panel of Countries, “Feminist Economics”, 15 (3), 2009 Lofstrom A. (2009), Gender equality, economic growth and employment, Swedish Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality Ruminska-Zimny E. (2009), Gender Gap and Economic Policy, UNECE 2009, //www.unece.org/gender/publications Stigliz J.E, Sen A., Fitoussi J.P. (2010), Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress // http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr |
| Legal notice |
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Presentation: Oral at Current Economic and Social Topics 2015, by Marta Hozer-KoćmielSee On-line Journal of Current Economic and Social Topics 2015 Submitted: 2015-11-23 01:10 Revised: 2015-11-23 01:22 |