Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2013

Abstract

The study uses a cross-sectional data set for 209 countries in order to examine the relationship between gender inequality and its determinants, such as the economic development, information communication technology (ICT), education, and institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We test whether the regulation of social life by Islamic norms and values is related to gender inequality and whether the impacts differ for the MENA countries, as well as Arab and Muslim majority countries. The study finds that the impact of gender inequality differs for the MENA, Arab and Muslim majority countries only when control variables are excluded from the regressions. The apparently significant religious and oil impacts disappear once control variables, such as the institutional quality, education, and ICT, are incorporated into the regressions. The paper obtains empirical evidence against belief that the religion and oil are culprits responsible for holding women back in the MENA, Arab, and Muslim majority countries. Neither of these factors fully explains the facts.

Identifier

2334-282X

Journal Title

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

ISSN

2334-282X

Publisher

Middle East Economic Association and Loyola University Chicago

Volume

15

Comments

Presentation of the articles in the Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies was made possible by a limited license granted to Loyola University Chicago and Middle East Economics Association from the authors who have retained all copyrights in the articles. http://www.luc.edu/orgs/meea/volume15/meea15.htm

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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