Stephanie Seguino

Professor

Office hours, by appointment
438 College Street
Tel:  802-656-0187
Fax:  802-656-4529
Email: stephanie.seguino@uvm.edu

I arrived at the University of Vermont in 1995 after receiving a Ph.D. in Economics from American University in 1994.  My research, while having a variety of branches, explores a critical question that became salient as a consequence of the four years I spent doing research in Haiti: "Is equity with growth possible?  If so, what are the conditions under which that happy outcome might occur?"

An initial effort to answer that question was an in-depth study of the South Korean growth experience. That work, which relied on a Kaldorian/Kaleckian theoretical framework, yielded some interesting insights.  While redistribution to (male) wages appeared to have been a stimulus to growth (it increased the incentive for firms to innovate), low wages paid to female workers in the export sector were a stimulus to growth.

In addition to analyzing the effects of inequality on growth, I have investigated the impact of various aspects of globalization on well-being and intergroup disparity.  I have explored, for example, the effects of investment liberalization on wages and productivity growth, and the effects of economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s on gender inequality in well-being.  I have also been working on how to measure well-being in a multidimensional way, since single measures of well-being (income, education, mortality rates) are insufficient to capture the full domain of capabilities with which we are concerned.

A recent project I have undertaken is to consider why researchers investigating the effects of inequality on growth obtain such different and indeed contradictory results. I argue that the measure of inequality matters: household distribution of income has different effects on growth than, for example, gender or ethnic wage inequality because they operate via differing macroeconomic pathways.

Over the past several years, I have been fortunate to work with a number of international organizations and research groups. I have, for example, been a consultant to U.S. Agency for International Development, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), and the World Bank. I am a member of the "Engendering Macroeconomics and International Trade" Project (GEM-IWG), funded by the Ford Foundation, and have taught in their international Knowledge Networking Project at the University of Utah for the past 2 summers.  I am also a Research Associate of the Levy Economics Institute.

In addition to my research focused on international concerns, I write about policy issues in the US.  For example, recently, I published several op-eds on the proposed Social Security reforms. I have also worked with local groups on issues of welfare reform and living wages.

Here is a link to my CV and some of my recent photographic work.


Recent Research:

"Plus Ca Change?: Evidence on Global Trends in Gender Norms and Stereotypes."  2007 (forthcoming), Feminist Economics.

"Is More Mobility Good?: Mobile Capital and the Low Wage Low Productivity Trap."  2007. In Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 18 (1): 27-51

"Gender, Distribution, and Balance of Payments Constrained Growth in Developing Countries."  Working Paper, September 2006.

"The Threads that Bind: Race and Gender Stratification and the Macroeconomics of Inequality."  Working Paper, November 2006.

"Central Bank Policy in Anglophone Caribbean and the US: Implications for Unemployment by Gender and Ethnicity."  With J. Heintz.  Working Paper, January 2007.

"Taking Gender Differences in Bargaining Power Seriously: Equity, Living Wages, and Labor Standards." 2006. In E. Kupier and D. Barker (eds), Feminist Perspectives on Gender and the World Bank, London: Routledge.

"The Great Equalizer?: Globalization Effects on Gender Equity in Well-Being in Latin America and the Caribbean." 2007.  In Anwar Shaikh (ed), Globalization and the Myth of Free Trade. London: Routledge.

"Gender Inequality in a Globalizing World."  Working Paper, 2005.

"The Road to Gender Equality: Global Trends and the Way Forward."  Working Paper, August 2005.

"Conceptual Challenges in Assessing Effects of Inequality on Economic Growth."  Working Paper, April 2005.

"Feminist-Kaleckian Macroeconomic Policy for Developing Countries." Co-authored with Caren Grown. Working Paper, November 2004. 


"Is Economic Growth Good for Well-being?:  Evidence on Gender Effects in Latin American and the Caribbean, 1970-2000."  Working Paper, May 2003.

"Does Gender Matter for Aggregate SavingAn Empirical Analysis." Co-authored with Maria Sagrario Floro.  International Review of Applied Economics 17(2): 147-66.

"Gender Equality through Labor Standards and Living Wages: An Exploration of the Issues for Asian SIEs. "  Working paper, December 2002.

"Why are Women in the Caribbean So Much More Likely than Men to  Be Unemployed ?"  Working Paper, May 2002.

"Gender, Quality of Life, and Growth in Asia 1970 to 1990."  2002. The Pacific Review 15 (2): 245-277.

 "Macroeconomic Effects of Reducing Gender Wage Inequality in an Export-Oriented, Semi-Industrialized Economy." Co-authored with Robert Blecker.  2002.  Review of Development Economics Vol. 6 (1): 103-119.

"The Roots of the Asian Financial Crisis: A Story of Export-Led Growth and Liberalized Capital Flows." 2000. In D. Saunders, R. Baiman, and H. Boushey (eds.) Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism: Perspectives on Economics Theory and Policy, pp. 225-35. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

 "The Effects of Structural Change and Economic Liberalization on Gender Wage Differentials in South Korea and Taiwan." 2000. Cambridge Journal of Economics 24 (4): 437-59.

 "Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis." 2000. World Development 28 (7): 1211-30.

 "Accounting for Gender in Asian Economic Growth." 2000. Feminist Economics 6 (3): 22-58.

 "The Investment Function Revisited: Disciplining Capital in South Korea." 1999-2000. Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics 22 (2): 315-38.

 "Gender Wage Inequality and Export-Led Growth in South Korea." 1997. Journal of Development Studies 34 (2): 102-32.

 "Export-Led Growth and the Persistence of Gender Inequality in the NICs." 1997. In J. Rives and M. Yousefi (eds.), Economic Dimensions of Gender Inequality: A Global Perspective , pp. 11-33. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

 "Gender and Cooperative Behavior: Economic Man Rides Alone." 1996. Co-authored with Thomas Stevens and Mark Lutz. Feminist Economics 2 (1): 1-21.