The Impact of Liberalisation on Women’s Economic Participation and the Incidence of Gender Equality on Morocco's Economy: A Gender-Sensitive CGE Model Analysis
The Impact of Liberalisation on Women’s Economic Participation and the Incidence of Gender Equality on Morocco's Economy: A Gender-Sensitive CGE Model Analysis

Summary/Abstract: The labour market participation of Moroccan women remains significantly lower than that of men. This issue has sparked academic and political debates in recent years. Numerous studies suggest solutions, including evaluating the effects of trade liberalisation on female employment. Using a gender-sensitive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model calibrated to Morocco's 2019 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM), this study simulates the impact of trade liberalisation on women's employment and wages.The results of this study show that full national liberalisation is pro-feminine in competitive and female labour-intensive sectors. However, it disadvantages women in less competitive and less female labour-intensive industries. This leads us to consider additional policies to stimulate women's employment in these latter sectors. Among these policies, the most effective are those targeting gender equality in social, legal, and financial aspects.  These policies yield favourable labour market outcomes: increased female labour supply in various sectors and a reduction in the gender wage gap. However, they have unfavourable macroeconomic consequences, such as production, exports, income, and investment declines. This is mainly due to the low productivity of Moroccan women compared to their male counterparts. This leads to the following conclusion: any policy aiming to increase women's participation in the labour market in Morocco must be accompanied by initiatives to improve their productivity.

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