Intelligence and gender (in)equality: Empirical evidence from developing countries

Abstract

This paper makes an attempt to explore whether intelligence of nations is related to gender inequality, measured by Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), in developing countries.Related literature robustly links intelligence to economic development, poverty, quality of institutions and informal economic activity. Controlling for conventional antecedents of gender inequality (i.e. religion, political regime, legal origins and trade openness), this paper finds that, on average, a 10-point increase in national IQ scores in the developing world is associated with an 8.2 point reduction in SIGI, ceteris paribus. To test the robustness of our findings we apply instrumental variables (IV) and robust regression methods. We also test whether our results are sensitive to the choice of control variables and heterogeneity of nations in our sample. The negative association of intelligence with gender inequality remains statistically significant and intact in all cases.

A cross-country empirical test of cognitive abilities and innovation nexus

“…Following León (2015León ( , 2016, Salahodjaev and Azam (2015) and Kanyama (2014) we use two different instruments that are individually related to intelligence, but are unrelated to ECI. They are absolute latitude of the geographical location of each country, and ultraviolet (UV) exposure of population.…”

Gender equality in Muslim-majority countries

“…In Iraq, Pakistan and Egypt, 27%, 22%, and 14% of the respondents agreed that women should be permitted to decide for themselves what to wear. PradoLu 2013, Cooray and Klasen 2014, Salahodjaev and Azam 2015. 7 To establish these results, scholars have used cross-country data and examined gender equality in countries with Muslim, Christian, etc., majorities.…”

Intellectual Giftedness for Leadership: How Robust is the Crime Reducing Effect of Intellectual Class?

“…Firstly, it is well acknowledged that countries with higher average IQ will experience a higher level of socioeconomic development. As outcomes of their more-positive cultures, high IQ societies are associated not only with higher economic growth and productivity (Jones & Schneider, 2006, but also with greater institutional quality such as less corruption, less inequality of gender, enhanced financial development, more democratic regime and political freedom, more efficient bureaucracies, and better rule of law (Lynn & Vanhanen, 2012;Potrafke, 2012;Salahodjaev, 2015;Salahodjaev & Azam, 2015).…”