scholarly journals Using Facebook Ad Data to Track the Global Digital Gender Gap

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoomali Fatehkia ◽  
Ridhi Kashyap ◽  
Ingmar Weber

Gender equality in access to the internet and mobile phones has become increasingly recognised as a development goal. Monitoring progress towards this goal however is challenging due to the limited availability of gender-disaggregated data, particularly in low-income countries. In this data sparse context, we examine the potential of a source of digital trace `big data' -- Facebook's advertisement audience estimates -- that provides aggregate data on Facebook users by demographic characteristics covering the platform's over 2 billion users to measure and `nowcast' digital gender gaps. We generate a unique country-level dataset combining `online' indicators of Facebook users by gender, age and device type, `offline' indicators related to a country's overall development and gender gaps, and official data on gender gaps in internet and mobile access where available. Using this dataset, we predict internet and mobile phone gender gaps from official data using online indicators, as well as online and offline indicators. We find that the online Facebook gender gap indicators are highly correlated with official statistics on internet and mobile phone gender gaps. For internet gender gaps, models using Facebook data do better than those using offline indicators alone. Models combining online and offline variables however have the highest predictive power. Our approach demonstrates the feasibility of using Facebook data for real-time tracking of digital gender gaps. It enables us to improve geographical coverage for an important development indicator, with the biggest gains made for low-income countries for which existing data are most limited.

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 282-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj Chetty ◽  
Nathaniel Hendren ◽  
Frina Lin ◽  
Jeremy Majerovitz ◽  
Benjamin Scuderi

We show that differences in childhood environments shape gender gaps in adulthood by documenting three facts using population tax records for children born in the 1980s. First, gender gaps in employment rates, earnings, and college attendance vary substantially across the parental income distribution. Notably, the traditional gender gap in employment rates is reversed for children growing up in poor families: boys in families in the bottom quintile of the income distribution are less likely to work than girls. Second, these gender gaps vary substantially across counties and commuting zones in which children grow up. The degree of variation in outcomes across places is largest for boys growing up in poor, single-parent families. Third, the spatial variation in gender gaps is highly correlated with proxies for neighborhood disadvantage. Low-income boys who grow up in high-poverty, high-minority areas work significantly less than girls. These areas also have higher rates of crime, suggesting that boys growing up in concentrated poverty substitute from formal employment to crime. Together, these findings demonstrate that gender gaps in adulthood have roots in childhood, perhaps because childhood disadvantage is especially harmful for boys.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147892992110195
Author(s):  
Paulo Cox ◽  
Mauricio Morales Quiroga

Gender gaps in voter turnout are usually studied using opinion surveys rather than official census data. This is because administrative censuses usually do not disaggregate turnout according to voters’ sex. Without this official information, much of the research on gender gaps in electoral turnout relies on survey respondents’ self-reported behavior, either before or after an election. The decision to use survey data implies facing several potential drawbacks. Among them are the turnout overstatement bias and the attrition or nonresponse bias, both affecting the estimation of factors explaining turnout and any related statistical analysis. Furthermore, these biases may be correlated with covariates such as gender: men, more than women, may systematically overstate their electoral participation. We analyze turnout gender gaps in Chile, comparing national surveys with official administrative data, which in Chile are publicly available. Crucially, the latter includes the official record of sex, age, and the electoral behavior—whether the individual voted or not—for about 14 million registered individuals. Based on a series of statistical models, we find that analysis based on survey data is likely to rule out gender gaps in electoral participation. Carrying out the same exercises, but with official data, leads to the opposite conclusion, namely, that there is a sizable gender gap favoring women.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liana Christin Landivar

In all developed countries, women, especially mothers, work fewer paid hours than their spouses. However, the magnitude of the gender gap varies significantly by country, ranging from 2 to 20 hours per week in this study. Using data from the 2002 International Social Survey Programme, this article investigates whether work-hour regulations have a significant effect on household allocation of paid labour and gender work-hour inequality. Two main types of work-hour regulations are examined: standard weekly work hours and the maximum allowable weekly work hours. Results show that households in countries with shorter maximum weekly work hours had less work-hour inequality between spouses, as each additional allowable overtime hour over the standard workweek increased the work-hour gap between couples by 20 minutes. These results indicate that couples’ inequality in work hours and gender inequality in labour supply are associated with country-level work-hour regulations.


Author(s):  
D. Brent Edwards ◽  
Inga Storen

Since the 1950s, the World Bank’s involvement and influence in educational assistance has increased greatly. The World Bank has not only been a key player, but, at times, has been the dominant international organization working with low-income countries to reform their education systems. Given the contributions that education makes to country development, the World Bank works in the realm of education as part of its broad mission to reduce poverty and to increase prosperity. This work takes the form of financing, technical assistance and knowledge production (among others) and occurs at multiple levels, as the World Bank seeks to contribute to country development and to shape the global conversation around the purposes and preferred models of education reform, in addition to engaging in international processes and politics with other multi- and bilateral organizations. The present article examines the work of the World Bank in historical perspective in addition to discussing how the role of this institution has been theorized and research by scholars. Specifically, the first section provides an overview of this institution’s history with a focus on how the leadership, preferred policies, organizational structure, lending, and larger politics to which it responds have changed over time, since the 1940s. Second, the article addresses the ways that the World Bank is conceptualized and approached by scholars of World Culture Theory, international political economy, and international relations. The third section contains a review of research on (a) how the World Bank is involved in educational policy making at the country level, (b) the ways the World Bank engages with civil society and encourages its general participation in educational assistance, (c) what is known about the World Bank in relation to policy implementation, and (d) the production of research in and on the Bank.


2020 ◽  
pp. 002073142090674
Author(s):  
Agnes Vitry ◽  
Gilles Forte ◽  
Jason White

Little is known on current practices and challenges associated with the legal trade of medicines controlled under international conventions in low-income countries. This qualitative survey involved semi-structured interviews of stakeholders engaged in the trade of controlled medicines at a global level or at a country level in 3 African countries (Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo). Nine interviews were conducted, including 3 international wholesalers, 2 relief organizations, 2 procurement officers, and 2 regulatory officers. Additionally, 4 other participants provided written information. All participants consistently reported that the current process of procuring controlled medicines in compliance with international conventions was long and complex given the number of administrative steps required for obtaining export and import authorizations, which are mandatory for both narcotic and psychotropic medicines. It may be difficult or impossible to obtain import authorizations from some health authorities in low-income countries because of long delays, mistakes in forms, absence or shortage of staff, or when annual national estimates are exceeded. The complexities of the trade of controlled medicines directly contribute to the lack of access to essential controlled medicines, both narcotics and psychotropics, in low-income countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Wagstaff ◽  
Patrick Eozenou ◽  
Marc Smitz

Abstract This paper provides an overview of research on out-of-pocket health expenditures by reviewing the various summary measures and the results of multi-country studies using these measures. The paper presents estimates for 146 countries from all World Bank income groups for all summary measures, along with correlations between the summary measures and macroeconomic and health system indicators. Large differences emerge across countries in per capita out-of-pocket expenditures in 2011 international dollars, driven in large part by differences in per capita income and the share of GDP spent on health. The two measures of dispersion or risk—the coefficient of variation and Q90/Q50—are only weakly correlated across countries and not explained by our macroeconomic and health system indicators. Considerable variation emerges in the out-of-pocket health expenditure budget share, which is highly correlated with the incidence of “catastrophic expenditures”. Out-of-pocket expenditures tend to be regressive and catastrophic expenditures tend to be concentrated among the poor when expenditures are assessed relative to income, while expenditures tend to be progressive and catastrophic expenditures tend to be concentrated among the rich when expenditures are assessed relative to consumption. At the extreme poverty line of $1.90-a-day, most impoverishment due to out-of-pocket expenditures occurs among low-income countries.


Rising mobile phone use has helped advance multiple development goals


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0249459
Author(s):  
Hayk Amirkhanyan ◽  
Michał Wiktor Krawczyk ◽  
Maciej Wilamowski

Using a large dataset of marathon runners, we estimate country- and gender-specific proxies for overconfidence. Subsequently, we correlate them with a number of indices, including various measures of gender equality. We find that in less gender-equal countries both males and females tend to be more self-confident than in more equal countries. While a substantial gender gap in overconfidence is observed, it only correlates with some sub-indices of gender equality. We conclude that there is likely a weak relationship between OC gender gap and gender inequality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (24) ◽  
pp. 1488-1497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tessa Strain ◽  
Katrien Wijndaele ◽  
Leandro Garcia ◽  
Melanie Cowan ◽  
Regina Guthold ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo compare the country-level absolute and relative contributions of physical activity at work and in the household, for travel, and during leisure-time to total moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).MethodsWe used data collected between 2002 and 2019 from 327 789 participants across 104 countries and territories (n=24 low, n=34 lower-middle, n=30 upper-middle, n=16 high-income) from all six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. We calculated mean min/week of work/household, travel and leisure MVPA and compared their relative contributions to total MVPA using Global Physical Activity Questionnaire data. We compared patterns by country, sex and age group (25–44 and 45–64 years).ResultsMean MVPA in work/household, travel and leisure domains across the 104 countries was 950 (IQR 618–1198), 327 (190–405) and 104 (51–131) min/week, respectively. Corresponding relative contributions to total MVPA were 52% (IQR 44%–63%), 36% (25%–45%) and 12% (4%–15%), respectively. Work/household was the highest contributor in 80 countries; travel in 23; leisure in just one. In both absolute and relative terms, low-income countries tended to show higher work/household (1233 min/week, 57%) and lower leisure MVPA levels (72 min/week, 4%). Travel MVPA duration was higher in low-income countries but there was no obvious pattern in the relative contributions. Women tended to have relatively less work/household and more travel MVPA; age groups were generally similar.ConclusionIn the largest domain-specific physical activity study to date, we found considerable country-level variation in how MVPA is accumulated. Such information is essential to inform national and global policy and future investments to provide opportunities to be active, accounting for country context.


2020 ◽  
pp. 141-160
Author(s):  
Magdalena Tomala ◽  
Michał Słowak

One of the most exposed value in an Age of Neoliberalism is a gender equality, which is an essential condition to achieve goals of economic growth, employment and social cohesion. The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) is a non-homogeneous region. When examining the economic situation of the region, the BSR countries are traditionally divided into two groups: (1) the high-income countries Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Iceland, which are called “old market economy countries”, or “developed economies of the region”; (2) the middle- or low-income countries as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. The latter are classified as post-socialist or transitional economies. The aim of the article is to analyse similarities and differences between those two groups of countries from 2006 to 2016 (ten years). The article compared gender gap using special tools as an economic participation, educational attainment and political empowerment


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