Description: Who Benefits and How Much? How Gender Affects Welfare Impacts of a Booming Textile Industry

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Who Benefits and How Much? How Gender Affects Welfare Impacts of a Booming Textile Industry

Exports of textile products originating from Sub-Saharan African countries have grown dramatically in the past decade. Recent trade initiatives, such as the "African Growth Opportunity Act" and "Everything but Arms," along with...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Nicita, Alessandro, Razzaz, Susan
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	ACCOUNTING CLIMATE COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE CONSTRUCTION COST OF LIVING DEVELOPED COUNTRIES DISCRIMINATION DIVISION OF LABOR ECONOMETRIC ESTIMATES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC POLICIES ECONOMIC SECTORS EMPLOYMENT EQUILIBRIUM EXCHANGE RATE EXERCISES EXPENDITURES EXTERNALITIES IMPORTS INCOME INFLATION INFORMAL SECTOR INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS LABOR COSTS LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS MIGRATION NEW ENTRANTS PENSIONS POLICY RESEARCH POVERTY LINE PRODUCTIVITY PURCHASING POWER QUOTAS REAL WAGES TEXTILE INDUSTRY TRANSACTION COSTS TRANSPORT UNEMPLOYMENT URBAN AREAS WAGE DIFFERENTIALS WAGES WORKERS TEXTILE INDUSTRY WELFARE EXPORTS GENDER EQUALITY METHODOLOGY POVERTY ALLEVIATION MECHANISMS INCOME LEVELS EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS WORKERS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/04/2329623/benefits-much-gender-affects-welfare-impacts-booming-textile-industry http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18227

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Summary:	Exports of textile products originating from Sub-Saharan African countries have grown dramatically in the past decade. Recent trade initiatives, such as the "African Growth Opportunity Act" and "Everything but Arms," along with low labor costs and improved integration into world markets, are giving further stimulus to the growth of the textile and apparel industry in Sub-Saharan African countries. Nicita and Razzaz explore the extent to which the poor are also beneficiaries of the export-led growth of particular economic sectors, or whether the poor are unable to reap any of the benefits and therefore fall further behind. They use a methodology that combines the matching methods literature (to identify individuals more likely to fill the new jobs of the expanding sector) with the industry wage premium literature (to quantify the gains of the individuals that move into the expanding sector). The results indicate that a sustained export-driven growth in Madagascar's textile and apparel industry will lead to a substantial increase in the income of poor households, with a consequent decrease in poverty. In a scenario simulating five years of expansion of the textile sector, the authors estimate that more than one million individuals will directly or indirectly receive some benefit. On average, households in which one or more members work in the textile sector get an increase in purchasing power of about 24 percent or US$14 a month. The results further show that benefits are unevenly distributed across male and female workers. Households in which a male member is employed in the textile and apparel industry increase their purchasing power by 36 percent or US$24.5 a month, compared with 22 percent or US$12.2 a month in the case of a female worker.