The Impact of Establishing a Gender-Dedicated Ministry on Gender Inequality: Evidence from South Korea Using Synthetic Control Methods

The Impact of Establishing a Gender-Dedicated Ministry on Gender Inequality: Evidence from South Korea Using Synthetic Control Methods | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Impact of Establishing a Gender-Dedicated Ministry on Gender Inequality: Evidence from South Korea Using Synthetic Control Methods Sangyong Kim This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9433232/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper estimates the causal impact of establishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in South Korea on gender inequality. Applying the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), we construct a counterfactual 'synthetic South Korea' to identify the effect of this institutional intervention, proxied by the Gender Inequality Index (GII), with 2001 as the treatment year. The empirical results demonstrate that South Korea experienced a statistically significant and substantial decline in gender inequality relative to its synthetic counterpart. Between 1999 and 2023, South Korea’s GII declined by approximately 84%, significantly outperforming the 52% reduction observed in synthetic South Korea. These findings, supported by placebo tests and MSPE ratio analyses, are driven by broad-based progress across multiple dimensions, notably in political representation, labor market participation, and education. Our results underscore the pivotal role of centralized institutional frameworks in mitigating gender disparities, providing empirical evidence for the efficacy of gender-dedicated governance. JEL Classification: D8 , H51 Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9433232","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":625328143,"identity":"5763fe4b-ee23-4cc2-867e-c6749a8a9da3","order_by":0,"name":"Sangyong Kim","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA+0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDADfgh1QAZKE6FFsgGilId4LQYHiNUi33728Gueijt2m48ff/zhY84dHoMD7BcfMJy5h9vwM3lp1jxnniVvO5NjJjlz2zOgFp5iA4Ybxbi1MOSYGfO2HU42O5DDxsy77TBIS5oEw4cE3A7rfwPRYtz//PHnv8RoYbiRY/wYqMXOQCLBQJoRrIX9mATDDdxaDG68MWOcc+ZwggSQIdkL9IvkYR5mg4Qz+ByWY/zhTcVhe/7+9Mcffm67I8d3vP3hgw/H8DiMgYFNChgXiQ0wrgLQbQx4NTAwMH/8wcBgj7C3gf0Bfg2jYBSMglEw0gAAcGFhHEEYaTwAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"National Assembly Budget Office","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sangyong","middleName":"","lastName":"Kim","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-04-16 05:08:26","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9433232/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9433232/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108668008,"identity":"672bc9a1-aac1-4318-811f-135deacfd8a3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-07 06:57:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":577622,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SangYongKimsubmission.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9433232/v1_covered_45e71d05-81e4-4951-bf18-1724488ff215.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The Impact of Establishing a Gender-Dedicated Ministry on Gender Inequality: Evidence from South Korea Using Synthetic Control Methods ","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9433232/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9433232/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper estimates the causal impact of establishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in South Korea on gender inequality. Applying the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), we construct a counterfactual 'synthetic South Korea' to identify the effect of this institutional intervention, proxied by the Gender Inequality Index (GII), with 2001 as the treatment year. The empirical results demonstrate that South Korea experienced a statistically significant and substantial decline in gender inequality relative to its synthetic counterpart. Between 1999 and 2023, South Korea’s GII declined by approximately 84%, significantly outperforming the 52% reduction observed in synthetic South Korea. These findings, supported by placebo tests and MSPE ratio analyses, are driven by broad-based progress across multiple dimensions, notably in political representation, labor market participation, and education. 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