On March 19 and 20, 2024, the Office of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Uruguay organized, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Department of Economics of the University of the Republic of Uruguay (UDELAR) and the Young Scholars Initiative of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (YSI-INET), the international seminar and discussion on gender and macroeconomics.
The meeting, which took place at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of UDELAR, featured a keynote lecture by the distinguished Professor Ozlem Onaran, from the University of Greenwich in the United Kingdom, Director of the Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre and co-director of the Institute of Political Economy, Governance, Finance and Accountability from that university. Professor Onaran has a long and prestigious academic career and has been a consultant for various international organizations and civil society agencies, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Foundation of European Progressive Studiesthe Vienna Chamber of Labour, Austrian Science Foundationand the Hans Boeckler Foundation.
The main focus of the seminar was to establish a dialogue with professors and students of the university based on the role that gender issues have in macroeconomics, both in the design of theoretical models and in the design of policies. In addition to presenting advances in the theoretical field, Professor Onaran discussed various results and policy simulations obtained from these models and with the support of various macroeconomic databases. These simulations indicate that a policy aimed at strengthening gender equality and the child care system could significantly improve the performance of several macroeconomic indicators, such as formal employment, income distribution, fiscal policy efficiency and aggregate productivity.
It was noted during the seminar that traditional macroeconomic models, which are often presented as gender-neutral, do not take into account the way in which gender roles, norms and power relations shape economic processes. In contrast, gender-sensitive structuralist models incorporate and model gender inequalities in areas such as labour markets, unpaid work (both domestic and care work), and access to resources and decision-making power. They also allow for consideration of how macroeconomic policies, including fiscal and monetary policies, can have different impacts on men and women.
The discussion included a meeting with a broad participation of economics professors from UDELAR. The discussion focused on how macroeconomics courses could more fully incorporate the importance of gender inequality in teaching, an aspect that is rarely considered in the textbooks currently available, but which is gradually gaining importance.
The meeting with the professors was an experience of frank and enriching dialogue, which reinforced the concern already existing at UDELAR to offer a broader and more pluralistic view in the teaching of macroeconomics, both in undergraduate and graduate studies. Also noteworthy was the large presence of young researchers and young professors who attended the workshop from the interior of Uruguay. For this, it was essential to have the support of YSI-INET and the synergy between the various institutions that participated in the organization of this meeting.
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