Does women empowerment foster export diversification? Evidence from a sample of developing countries.

This paper contributes to the literature on the drivers of export diversification by tackling an issue that has received scant attention in this literature, that is, the effect of women empowerment on export product diversification in developing countries. The analysis focuses on a sample of 106 developing countries covering the period 2002–2018. The results suggest that women's political empowerment and gender parity in secondary school enrolment have a positive effect on export diversification. On the contrary, gender vulnerable employment inequality and gender wage inequality have a negative effect on diversification. These findings suggest that policies targeting SDG 5 – gender parity and women empowerment – can potentially improve trade performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]