迈向公平的财政政策：改革税收和预算制度以实现性别平等

Hannelore Maria L. Niesten, Luiza Ferraz Di Ricco, and Alena Sakhonchik1T he first two Briefs in this series presented new cross-country data from theWomen, Business and theLaw(WBL) project on gender integration in taxation (81 economies) and gender-responsivebudgeting (50 economies). The data set is a first-ever global baseline for assessing how fiscal systemsaddress gender in laws, policies, and practices. This final Brief synthesizes the main findings andmoves from diagnosis to policy direction, highlighting four cross-cutting challenges: persistent gaps insex-disaggregated data; limited and fragmented gender analysis in tax policy and tax administration; unevenadoption of gender-responsive budgeting; and weak coordination between taxation and public spending. TheBrief concludes with a practical reform agenda for governments seeking to align taxation and publicspending with objectives to improve gender equality and promote inclusive growth.Public Disclosure Authorized and monitoring, to assess how public resources are allocated andwho benefits from public spending. GRB can be supportedthrough diagnostic tools such as the Public Expenditure andFinancialAccountability(PEFA)Program Gender module(Gender PEFA), which assesses the extent to which publicfinancial management systems integrate gender across the budgetcycle (PEFA Secretariat 2020). As highlighted in recent researchthat calls for unified gender-responsive fiscal systems (ClementsandStotsky 2017;Grown and Mascagni 2024;Niesten,Starosta, and Stotsky 2025), such approaches underpin the WBLinitiative, which examines how fiscal frameworks – not justoutcomes they produce – integrate gender. A unified approach to fiscal policy: Why taxand spending must be analyzed together Taxation and public spending together determine how publicresources flow across society. Yet, these two sides of the fiscalsystem have been historically assessed separately, leading tofragmented approaches that overlook critical interactions. Taxpolicyshapes labor incentives,income distribution,andhousehold decisions, while public spending determines access toservices, education, and infrastructure – factors that influencewomen’s time use, unpaid care responsibilities, and economicopportunities (Apps and Rees 2007; Bick and Fuchs-Schündeln2017; Coelho et al. 2022; Elson 2017; ILO 2018, 2023; OECD2022, 2025; World Bank 2024).Public Disclosure Authorized Cross-cutting findings: What the combineddata reveal When one side of the fiscal system is gender-blind, reforms onthe other may fail to achieve their intended outcomes. Taxincentives to support women’s entry into the labor market, forexample,may have limited impact if childcare remainsunderfunded. Conversely, investments in childcare may nottranslate into higher labor force participation if joint taxation ofspouses or dependent spouse deductions penalize secondaryearners – typically women. These complementarities underscoretheneed for integrated fiscal approaches,includinggender-responsive budgeting (GRB), the systematic integrationof gender considerations into budget formulation, execution, Gender data gaps are the single largest barrier across bothtaxation and budgeting. Of 81 economies in the data set, fewerthan half collect sex-disaggregated taxpayer data, and noneinclude gender analysis in tax expenditure reports, to evaluatethe distributional effects of tax incentives (credits, deductions,exemptions, and allowances) for women and men. Among 50economies with GRB data, only 6 require sex-disaggregatedbeneficiarydata,and only a handful publish such dataconsistently. These gaps mirror findings across major global reviewsofGRBandgender-responsivetaxation(Alonso-Albarran et al. 2021; OECD 2023; UN Women 2023).Without accurate and comprehensive administrative data thatare systematically disaggregated by sex, governments cannotassess who benefits from or bears the burden of fiscal measures,conduct robust distributional analysis, or monitor progress overtime. starts with embedding gender variables into tax registration,filing,and administration systems,as well as into budgetexecution and service delivery data sets. Here, “core fiscalinfrastructure” refers to the foundational tax administration,publicfinancial management,and fiscal data systems thatunderpinbudget formulation,execution,and reporting.Statisticalagencies should complement this by producingregular, high-quality labor, household, and time-use data thatcan be linked to fiscal analysis (Charmes et al. 2025). Genderanalysis of tax systems remains limited andfragmented.Many personal income tax systems,thoughappearing neutral, embed structural features – such as jointfiling, tax allowances for dependent spouse, and family-based taxdeductions – that disadvantage women, typically as secondaryearners (Apps and Rees 2007; Coelho et al. 2022; Holter et al.2023). Tax measures that are different for men and women existin 22 of the 81 economies reviewed, yet they are rarely evaluate