Papers by Stephanie Seguino
Feminist Economics, 1996
Neoclassical theory posits an undifferentiated economic agent whose self-interested behavior prom... more Neoclassical theory posits an undifferentiated economic agent whose self-interested behavior promotes a tendency to free ride in the provision of public goods. Challenges to this rigid portrayal of human character have come from a variety of directions. A dozen years ago Gerald ...
Feminist Economics, 2009
This study examines connections between intergroup inequality and macroeconomic outcomes, conside... more This study examines connections between intergroup inequality and macroeconomic outcomes, considering various channels through which gender, growth, and development interact. It upholds the salience not only of equality in opportunities but also equality in outcomes. The contribution argues that inequalities based on gender, race, ethnicity, and class undermine the ability to provision and expand capabilities, and it examines the macroeconomic policies that are likely to promote broadly shared development. It explores how the macroeconomy acts as a structure of constraint in achieving gender equality and in turn how gender relations in areas like education and wage gaps can have macro-level impacts. Further, it underscores that the interaction of the macroeconomy and gender relations depends on the structure of the economy, the nature of job segregation, the particular measure of gender inequality, and a country's international relations. Finally, it outlines policies for promoting gender equality as both an intrinsic goal and a step toward improving well-being.
Journal of African Development, 2016
This paper assesses country and regional trends in gender inequality since 1990 in three domains:... more This paper assesses country and regional trends in gender inequality since 1990 in three domains: capabilities, livelihoods, and agency. The data offer evidence of substantial improvements in education, a component of the capabilities domain. There has been some modest but uneven progress in the livelihoods domain, particularly with regard to employment. In contrast, there is a reversal in progress towards job integration, as evidenced by a decline in the ratio of the share of women employed in the industrial sector relative to men. Also, global stress in labor markets has reduced men's access to employment in some countries, making the progress to date potentially gender conflictive. Agency, measured as the female share of parliamentary seats, has also made only modest progress. These results suggest the need for an expanded focus beyond just educational equality to livelihoods, where gender gaps are wider than in education and stubbornly persistent.
This paper advances a theory of gender justice, defined as equality of outcomes in three domains:... more This paper advances a theory of gender justice, defined as equality of outcomes in three domains: capabilities, livelihoods, and empowerment/agency. A pivotal requirement is for women and men to be distributed along axes of well-being, with their respective distributions possessing equal means and dispersions. An understanding of gender stratification lies behind this proposal, whereby males benefit materially from a system of gender-divided work and responsibilities. This hierarchical system, buttressed by gender ideology, norms, and stereotypes, is disturbed as we approach gender equality in outcomes, especially of livelihoods. The latter induces greater female bargaining power, which, coupled with the effect of social role incongruency on norms and stereotypes, serves to leverage change. Macroeconomic policy can support the shift to greater economic power for women by creating the conditions for class equality that is compatible with sustained economic growth.
are women in the Caribbean so much more likely than men to be unemployed?
Views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the World Bank or its member... more Views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the World Bank or its member countries. The authors would like to thank the World Bank Policy Research Report on Gender and Development Team for their support and helpful suggestions, particularly Elizabeth King. We are grateful to Diane Elson for her encouragement and to Lourdes Benería, Thomas Hungerford, Elaine McCrate, and John Willoughby for their useful comments on earlier drafts.
räumlich unbeschränkte und zeitlich auf die Dauer des Schutzrechts beschränkte einfache Recht ein... more räumlich unbeschränkte und zeitlich auf die Dauer des Schutzrechts beschränkte einfache Recht ein, das ausgewählte Werk im Rahmen der unter
Solid waste management options for Maine: The economics of pay-by-the-bag systems Maine Policy Re... more Solid waste management options for Maine: The economics of pay-by-the-bag systems Maine Policy Review (1995). Volume 4, Number 2 State and federal environmental mandates during the last three decades have changed the nature of the debate over solid waste disposal, but not the basic question: What do we do about the garbage we produce? Unlike years past, however, disposal options are now fewer and more costly. This has resulted in a shift in focus away from solutions that simply try to deal with the output of the disposal process--the trash--to those that focus on inputs--reducing the volume of materials going into the waste stream. Among the volume reduction strategies are recycling, which focuses on specific input materials, and volume-based fees, such as pay-by-the-bag (PB) solid waste disposal systems. This article is based on a report of the Margaret Chase Smith
Die ZBW räumt Ihnen als Nutzerin/Nutzer das unentgeltliche, räumlich unbeschränkte und zeitlich a... more Die ZBW räumt Ihnen als Nutzerin/Nutzer das unentgeltliche, räumlich unbeschränkte und zeitlich auf die Dauer des Schutzrechts beschränkte einfache Recht ein, das ausgewählte Werk im Rahmen der unter
Levy Institute scholars and conference participants. The purpose of the series is to disseminate ... more Levy Institute scholars and conference participants. The purpose of the series is to disseminate ideas to and elicit comments from academics and professionals. The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, founded in 1986, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, independently funded research organization devoted to public service. Through scholarship and economic research it generates viable, effective public policy responses to important economic problems that profoundly affect the quality of life in the United States and abroad.
The Review of Black Political Economy, 2020
Many states now require law enforcement to collect race data on traffic stops, but there has been... more Many states now require law enforcement to collect race data on traffic stops, but there has been little research on the use of that data to inform public policy or reform efforts at the agency level. This article addresses that lacuna by presenting results from the first statewide analysis of Vermont traffic stop data. Racial threat theory, a subset of stratification theory, would predict that policing in a predominantly white state like Vermont would exhibit lower racial disparities than states with a more racially diverse population because the “threat” to white dominance is less. The results contradict that prediction. Vermont, despite its reputation as a liberal state, is not different from other states in exhibiting wide racial disparities in policing. And yet, analysis and dissemination of race data in policing, by providing an evidentiary basis for citizen claims of racial bias, contributed to action on the part of the state legislature and government to address racial discr...
State and federal environmental mandates during the last three decades have changed the nature of... more State and federal environmental mandates during the last three decades have changed the nature of the debate over solid waste disposal, but not the basic question: What do we do about the garbage we produce? Unlike years past, however, disposal options are now fewer and more costly. This has resulted in a shift in focus away from solutions that simply try to deal with the output of the disposal process-the trash-to those that focus on inputs-reducing the volume of materials going into the waste stream. Among the volume reduction strategies are recycling, which focuses on specific input materials, and volume-based fees, such as pay-by-the-bag (PB) solid waste disposal systems. This article is based on a report of the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy, University of Maine entitled: "Solid waste management systems for Maine: The economics of pay-by-the-bag systems." In addition to the three authors identified above, the Smith Policy Center gratefully acknowledges ...
International Journal of Political Economy, 2021
The Care Work and the Economy (CWE-GAM) Project strives to reduce gender gaps in economic outcome... more The Care Work and the Economy (CWE-GAM) Project strives to reduce gender gaps in economic outcomes and enhance gender equality by illuminating and properly valuing the broader economic and social contributions of caregivers and integrating care in macroeconomic policymaking toolkits. We work to provide policymakers, scholars, researchers and advocacy groups with gender-aware data, empirical evidence, and analytical tools needed to promote creative, gender-sensitive macroeconomic and social policy solutions. In this era of demographic shifts and economic change, innovative policy solutions to chronic public underinvestment in care provisioning and infrastructures and the constraints that care work places on women's life and employment choices are needed more than ever. Sustainable development requires gender-sensitive policy tools that integrate emerging understandings of care work and its connection with labor supply, and economic and welfare outcomes.
One very cold February morning, some years ago, I was in line at a small airportin Maine to check... more One very cold February morning, some years ago, I was in line at a small airportin Maine to check in for a flight to Haiti, where I had been working. Oddly enough, theperson in front of me held a box addressed to someone in Port-au-Prince, and I inquiredas to whether he knew someone there. He replied, “No, the box is mine. I am a managerfor Stride Rite (a footwear manufacturer). We closed up in Newport on Friday and willopen up a new factory in Port-au-Prince on Monday.” Newport is a town about 30 milesaway that had, in its hey dey, been host to several shoe factories, one of which my fatherhad worked in some years before.Wages in Maine for “hand sewers” in shoe factories had not been terribly high,but they were substantially higher than in Port-au-Prince—where workers were paid onthe order of 50 cents a day. The newly employed Stride Rite workers in Haiti, as they hadbeen in Maine, would be predominantly women. The story of these Haitian women hasbeen told numerous times. Work cond...
I came of age as an economist in the classroom of Haiti. The extremes of wealth and deep, pervasi... more I came of age as an economist in the classroom of Haiti. The extremes of wealth and deep, pervasive destitution there troubled me. At that time—around 1984—development economics was undergoing a sea change, parallel to the one that had taken place in macroeconomic theory in the 1970s. The frameworks of “redistribution with growth” and the “basic needs approach” to development were in the process of being discarded, and in their stead, market-oriented theoretical approaches that stressed economic openness, liberalization, and a circumscribed role for government in managing the economy moved to the forefront.
In 2014, the Vermont legislature passed a bill requiring all Vermont law enforcement agencies to ... more In 2014, the Vermont legislature passed a bill requiring all Vermont law enforcement agencies to collect traffic stop data so as to make it possible to identify and track any racial disparities in policing. The first round of data became available in 2016, and "Driving While Black and Brown in Vermont" (Seguino and Brooks 2017), an analysis of that data was released in January 2017. The report has generated wide-ranging conversations about the role of race in policing. Several Vermont law enforcement agencies have responded by taking the initiative to invest in training to address potential implicit bias in policing and to improve the quality of their data. At the same time, there have been questions raised by some observers about the quality of the data and methodology used in the 2017 study, and a concern that the study does not account for the context of traffic stops that may justify the racial disparities found in the original report. In this brief, we address these questions and report results from a logistic regression analysis that accounts for other factors beyond race that may influence the probability of being searched and of contraband being found. We also present new results of an analysis of race and the types of contraband found in 2016 Vermont State Police vehicle searches. A brief summary of our findings is as follows: • Data quality. A concern has been raised that the data are of poor quality and therefore should not be used to make inferences. Control for data quality lies with law enforcement agencies. There is room for improvement to ensure complete data and uniform methods of coding. These efforts appear to be underway. That said, we did not find evidence of serious miscoding or overt efforts to manipulate the data in the dataset law enforcement agencies provided. • Home state of driver and vehicle registration, and passenger data. There is a view that racial disparities in stops and post-stop outcomes would be smaller if the data analysis controlled for out-of-state drivers, vehicles, and passengers. That is possible, but law enforcement agencies have not provided that data to the public-nor does the legislation require it. Once that is made available, those variables can be included in the analysis. • The benchmarking issue. A perennial question in race data analysis in policing across the country is what is the appropriate denominator to use in calculating stop rates by race? The best practice nationally is to use data on the race of not-at-fault drivers in accidents, which we have done in our 2017 study. Our analysis also includes indicators based on post-stop outcomes, where the race of the driver is known (or, more precisely, at which time the officer has formed a perception of the race of the driver). By basing conclusions from analysis of multiple indicators instead of only one (such as the stop rates), we avoided the problem of "cherry-picking" indicators. This approach provides a more accurate assessment of the data in the event there are mismeasurement problems in any one of the indicators. Our assessment of racial disparities in policing then relies not on any one indicator, but the patterns across all indicators. Insofar as those patterns are consistent across indicators, more robust conclusions can be drawn about the degree of racial disparities. • The role of context in explaining racial disparities. In this report, we conducted logistic regression analysis to account for all the contextual factors that are available in the data that might influence the probability of being searched and of contraband being found. Controlling for these factors, we find that race continues to be a statistically significant factor in an officer's decision to search a vehicle and in the probability of finding contraband. Wide racial disparities persist. Specifically, Black and Hispanic drivers continue to be roughly 2.5 to 4.0 times more likely to be searched that White drivers, and 30 to 50 percent less likely to be found with contraband subsequent to a search than White drivers. These findings indicate probable oversearching of Black and Hispanic drivers compared to White drivers. • The analysis of Vermont State Police contraband data, resulting from 440 searches in 2016, provides an initial detailed racial analysis of the types of contraband found in searches based on probable cause or reasonable suspicion. Two striking features of these data are: 1) over 70 % of all contraband found is marijuana with 13% comprised on heroin, cocaine, or opioids, and 2) only White drivers were found with heroin, cocaine, and/or opioids. No drivers of any other race with found with this contraband. This suggests that, at least for this dataset for 2016, and for these types of searches, assumptions held by the public and law enforcement about the race of drivers carrying this type of contraband should be revisited.
Social and economic studies, 2003
Caribbean women are more likely than men to be unemployed, as evidenced by the economies studied ... more Caribbean women are more likely than men to be unemployed, as evidenced by the economies studied here—Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. This paper uses aggregate data to explore macroeconomic factors that contribute to gender differentials in unemployment. National economic conditions and job segregation explain a portion of gender differences in unemployment, with men more likely to find employment during an economic upturn. Even within job categories, though, women’s unemployment rates are higher than men’s, suggesting employment discrimination. The results imply that economic growth is not sufficient to ensure equitable job access, and more targeted efforts are therefore necessary to ensure gender equity.
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Papers by Stephanie Seguino