Effects of IMF-Supported Programs on Gender Inequality

IMF Working Papers, December 6, 2024

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Crises often require economic consolidations that may unevenly affect different segments of the population.
Some crisis countries enter financial arrangements with the IMF and adopt adjustment programs, and studies have associated program conditionality with negative impacts on gender inequality.
Proper evaluations require credible control groups addressing the counterfactual: do post-crisis gender disparities evolve differently without an IMF-supported program?
The study examines over 150 IMF-supported programs (1994-2022) using custom-tailored control groups that match each IMF-supported program country’s gender and economic trends.
The analysis finds overwhelming evidence against systematic impacts of IMF-supported programs on gender equality.

Sample: over 150 IMF-supported programs.
Time frame: 1994-2022.
Approach: custom-tailored control groups matching each IMF-supported program country’s gender and economic trends to address the counterfactual.
Gender-related indicators and databases referenced in keywords: Adolescent Fertility, enrollment gender parity index, Female Labor Force Participation, Maternal Mortality, MONA database, gender indicator, gender impact gap, SCM bias-corrected gender impact gap, root mean square.

The primary empirical finding: overwhelming evidence against systematic impacts of IMF-supported programs on gender equality.
The paper challenges prior associations between program conditionality and negative impacts on gender inequality by using matched control groups to estimate counterfactual outcomes.

Subjects: Gender, Gender diversity, Gender inequality, Health, Labor, Labor force participation.
Keywords: Adolescent Fertility, crisis indicator, Economic Crisis, Education, enrollment gender parity index, Female Labor Force Participation, gender disparity, Gender diversity, gender impact gap, gender indicator, Gender Inequality, gender inequality indicator, Global, IMF-supported programs, impact gap, Labor force participation, Maternal Mortality, MONA database, recovery economics, root mean square, SCM bias-corrected gender impact gap.