The Impact of Export Diversification and Trade Openness on Gender Development in MENA Countries

Foreign trade and improving the quality of exports are among the strategies that have been considered to achieve higher economic development in many countries. A quick look at the theories of international trade shows that the general consensus of these theories is that trade causes the economic growth and development of countries and these positive effects can affect different aspects of people's lives. One of the important dimensions of economic and social development is the status of women and their benefit from the development process. For this reason, this research has investigated the effect of trade openness and export diversification, as two important components of trade and its structure, on the gender development index. Considering North Africa and the Middle East (MENA) region and statistical information between 1995 and 2021 in the framework of the panel data regression model, this research shows that trade openness and export diversification have a positive and significant effect on the gender development index and its sub-indices. So that in the group of countries studied, a one percent increase in the trade openness has improved gender development by 0.015 percent and a one percent increase in export diversification has improved gender development by 0.034 percent.