Does aid for gender equality reduce female migration?

Betül Simsek (University of Hamburg)

Abstract

This paper tests the impact of gender-specific development aid on female emigration rates using data on 140 origin countries from 2002-2020.
Results show that the type of gender-specific aid matters. Aid provided with the primary purpose of empowering women demonstrates a significant negative correlation with female migration. Aid that is provided for other purposes but incorporates a gendered perspective, so-called gender mainstreaming, shows no effect when relying on instrumental variable estimates.

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