Gender Inequalities, Capital Deepening and Trade

This dissertation analyzes the effects of technological change, capital intensity and increased trade activity on the gender/ skill differentiated employment in the trade-related sub-sectors of the Turkish manufacturing industry during the 1990-2001 period. The primary objective is to find out the changes in relative employment opportunities for women workers as industries respond to increased international competition by pursuing the high road of increasing productivity. I use the...
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This dissertation analyzes the effects of technological change, capital intensity and increased trade activity on the gender/ skill differentiated employment in the trade-related sub-sectors of the Turkish manufacturing industry during the 1990-2001 period. The primary objective is to find out the changes in relative employment opportunities for women workers as industries respond to increased international competition by pursuing the high road of increasing productivity. I use the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) method to examine the determinants of skill/ gender-/ intensity of employment. I find evidence in support of capital-skill complementarity during the 1990-2001 period. Capital deepening, however, did not have gender neutral employment effects. Specifically, I find that for the manufacturing industry as a whole capital had a preference for skilled males over skilled females controlling for the effects of trade. When I focus on the individual sectors however, I find that some sectors had skilled-male labor complementarity with capital while some of them had skilled-female labor complementarity.