The gendered employment gains of investing in social vs. physical infrastructure: evidence from simulations across seven OECD countries

de Henau, Jérôme and Himmelweit, Susan (2020). The gendered employment gains of investing in social vs. physical infrastructure: evidence from simulations across seven OECD countries. IKD Working Paper No. 84, The Open University.

URL: http://www.open.ac.uk/ikd/publications/working-pap...

Abstract

Public spending on social infrastructure is usually seen as a cost rather than an investment, and not considered for investment-led Keynesian stimulus policies, despite having long-term economic and social benefits. This paper simulates and compares the (gendered) total employment effects of investing in the care and construction industries, as examples of social and physical infrastructure respectively, across seven OECD countries. Our simulations show that investment in care generates more total employment, including indirect and induced employment, than investment in construction, especially for women, and almost as much employment for men. This structural difference remains, though is somewhat reduced, if the analysis is conducted in FTEs with wages in care matched to those in construction. Further, the fiscal returns from investing in care are higher, allowing greater investment for the same net cost. Equalising net spending therefore gives investing in care a further advantage in employment creation over investing in construction.