International competitiveness and gender inequality: rethinking the balance-of-payments constrained growth model
Author(s)
Date Issued
2025
Type
article
Journal
Abstract
The paper aims to introduce a gender-sensitive balance-of-payments-constrained growth
(BoPCG) model by analyzing the relationship between international competitiveness and
gender division of labor, primarily focusing on developing countries. The BoPCG model
posits that long-term output growth is driven mainly by export expansion, maintaining
trade account equilibrium. While there is some early literature on the gendered consequences
of trade liberalization, the consequences for women have been explored little. To
analyze the women’s perspective on international competitiveness strategies, the novelty of
this paper is the introduction of the gender division of labor in the BoPCG model: social
norms allocate the primary responsibility for social reproduction to women, so that their
time allocation is divided across the market paid work and unpaid home care. The paper
analytically demonstrates that disequilibrium adjustment mechanisms ultimately depend
on women’s time allocation between market work and unpaid self-care. In the short term,
international price competitiveness is driven by low women’s wages, thereby generating
time stress for women due to gendered caregiving norms. In the long run, adequate social
care infrastructure allows women to increase paid labor without compromising care time
and reducing time stress. Disequilibrium adjustment in the model shows how international
trade could reinforce structural inequalities by reinforcing the gender inequality that women
unequally bear in capitalist economies.