Modelling the Effects of Trade on Women, at Work and at Home

Abstract

Foreign trade affects women's wages and jobs, their household work, and their leisure. This paper develops a model which covers not only all the sectors of the market economy, but also social reproduction and leisure activities, for women and men separately. The model, which in other respects is a standard CGE (computable general equilibrium) model, is applied to a simplified set of data for Bangladesh. Its use is illustrated by simulating the gendered effects of changes in trade policies and capital flows.

JEL Classification: C68, F16, J16, O15, O53