Trading gender equality? : Examining the impact of exposure to gender equality through trade on the gender wage gap: A European multi-country approach

Abstract: The analysis studies the spill-over effect of the gender equality of the trading partner on the gender wage gap. The aim is to contribute to the gender aspect of the literature studying the effect of globalisation on wage inequality, and especially to the very limited literature on the spill-over effect of the trading partner. It uses a European multi-country approach and analyses both exports and imports, which has not been done previously. For the empirical analysis, cross-country panel data is used to construct a fixed effects model. The results show a strong positive effect on the gender wage gap for both exports and imports, although the effect is stronger for imports. It indicates that a change in the gender equality of the trading partners has a significant effect on the gender wage gap. Furthermore, the analysisis extended to also analyse the explaining mechanisms raised by the literature. The results give an indication that certain groups based on technology intensity are driving the results, implying that the explaining mechanism could be the adoption of technology favoring women, but needs further research to draw any conclusions. All in all, the results provide evidence on the existence of a spill-over effect and highlights the importance of including both imports and exports for further research into the explaining mechanisms.