DO GENDER EMPOWERMENT AND DEMOCRACY REDUCE POVERTY RATE? A CROSS-PROVINCES EVIDENCE FROM WESTERN INDONESIA
DO GENDER EMPOWERMENT AND DEMOCRACY REDUCE POVERTY RATE? A CROSS-PROVINCES EVIDENCE FROM WESTERN INDONESIA

Summary/Abstract: Our study aims to explore the effect of genderempowerment and democracy on the poverty rate inwestern Indonesia. The data operationalized is a crosssectional data set of 8 provinces for the period of 2007-2018. The dynamic model of the econometric analysis wasapplied to analyze functional and causal relations betweenthe three variables. Our findings discovered that there is along-run equilibrium relationship between the poverty rate,gender empowerment, and democracy. In the long-run,both the poverty rate and democracy positively related togender empowerment. In the short-run, the relations arenegative and significant. At the 2-period horizon, genderempowerment has a negative and significant effect onpoverty, but democracy has a non-significant effect on thepoverty rate. The result of the Granger causality testindicates that there is a bidirectional causality betweengender empowerment and democracy. Besides,unidirectional causality exists from gender empowermentand democracy to poverty rates. This finding implies thatthe effort of the Indonesian government to alleviate thepoverty rate should consider policy intervention related toincreasing gender empowerment and improving the qualityof democracy. The government should encouragewomen’s role in the economic, social, and political field.Besides, the government has to increase the democracyindex by improving civil rights in economics and politics.

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