IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/femeco/v19y2013i2p1-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Critical Assessment of the UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index

Author

Listed:
  • Iñaki Permanyer

Abstract

This study critically reviews the Gender Inequality Index (GII), the new gender-related index proposed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the 2010 Human Development Report , arguing that its particular construction limits its usefulness and appropriateness as a global gender inequality index. In particular, the functional form of the index is excessively and unnecessarily confusing. Moreover, the inclusion of indicators that compare the relative performance of women vis-à-vis men, together with absolute women-specific indicators, obscures even more the interpretation of an already complicated index and penalizes the performance of low-income countries. In order to overcome some of the identified limitations, this contribution defines a new composite index of gender inequality that incorporates the GII variables but uses a much simpler functional form. The results suggest that great caution should be exercised when interpreting and using the values of the GII.

Suggested Citation

  • Iñaki Permanyer, 2013. "A Critical Assessment of the UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 1-32, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:19:y:2013:i:2:p:1-32
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2013.769687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13545701.2013.769687
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13545701.2013.769687?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amie Gaye & Jeni Klugman & Milorad Kovacevic & Sarah Twigg & Eduardo Zambrano, 2010. "Measuring Key Disparities in Human Development: The Gender Inequality Index," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2010-46, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    2. Boris Branisa & Stephan Klasen & Maria Ziegler, 2009. "The Construction of the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 184, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aaron Lowen & Robert O. Deaner & Erika Schmitt, 2016. "Guys and Gals Going for Gold," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(3), pages 260-285, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeni Klugman & Francisco Rodríguez & Hyung-Jin Choi, 2011. "The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 249-288, June.
    2. Amie Gaye & Jeni Klugman & Milorad Kovacevic & Sarah Twigg & Eduardo Zambrano, 2013. "Measuring gender disparities in human development," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 24, pages 393-409, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Sebastian Vollmer & Sarah Khan & Le Thi Ngoc Tu & Atika Pasha & Soham Sahoo, 2017. "PROTOCOL: The effect of interventions for women's empowerment on children's health and education: A systematic review of evidence from low‐ and middle‐income countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-61.
    4. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    5. Hafsa Qaiser & Hafeez ur Rehman & Noman Arshed, 2023. "Role of institutional quality on women's empowerment—A case of highly gender unequal Asian countries," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 48-75, March.
    6. Rosalia Castellano & Antonella Rocca, 2017. "The dynamic of the gender gap in the European labour market in the years of economic crisis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 1337-1357, May.
    7. Markowsky, Eva, 2022. "Culture, Female Labour Force Participation, and Selective Migrationː New Meta-Analytic Evidence," WiSo-HH Working Paper Series 65, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory.
    8. Anke Becker, 2019. "On the Economic Origins of Restrictions on Women's Sexuality," CESifo Working Paper Series 7770, CESifo.
    9. Ms. Janet Gale Stotsky & Sakina Shibuya & Ms. Lisa L Kolovich & Suhaib Kebhaj, 2016. "Trends in Gender Equality and Women’s Advancement," IMF Working Papers 2016/021, International Monetary Fund.
    10. David Mayer-Foulkes, 2013. "A Cross-country Causal Panorama of Human Development and Sustainability," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 235-251, May.
    11. Mahanta, Bidisha & Nayak, Purusottam, 2013. "Gender Inequality in North East India," MPRA Paper 43846, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Eduardo Zambrano, 2014. "An axiomatization of the human development index," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 42(4), pages 853-872, April.
    13. Francisco Goerlich, 2020. "Distributionally adjusted life expectancy as a life table function," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(14), pages 365-400.
    14. Rosalia CASTELLANO & Antonella ROCCA, 2018. "Gender disparities in European labour markets: A comparison of conditions for men and women in paid employment," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 157(4), pages 589-608, December.
    15. Jha, Chandan Kumar & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2018. "Women and corruption: What positions must they hold to make a difference?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 219-233.
    16. Neetu A. John & Kirsten Stoebenau & Samantha Ritter & Jeffrey Edmeades & Nikola Balvin & UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, 2017. "Gender Socialization during Adolescence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Conceptualization, influences and outcomes," Papers indipa885, Innocenti Discussion Papers.
    17. Ferretti, Fabrizio & Mariani, Michele, 2017. "Gender Discrimination, Gender Disparities in Obesity and Human Development," MPRA Paper 77728, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Gaëlle Ferrant, 2014. "The Multidimensional Gender Inequalities Index (MGII): A Descriptive Analysis of Gender Inequalities Using MCA," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 653-690, January.
    19. Nathalie Holvoet & Liesbeth Inberg, 2013. "Multiple Pathways to Gender-Sensitive Budget Support in the Education Sector: Analysing the Effectiveness of Sex-Disaggregated Indicators in Performance Assessment Frameworks and Gender Working Groups," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-105, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Imane Chaara, 2012. "Pro-Women Legal Reform in Morocco: Is Religion an Obstacle?," Working Papers 685, Economic Research Forum, revised 2012.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:19:y:2013:i:2:p:1-32. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.