More Freedom, Less Equality: The Unexpected Economics of Abortion in Central Asia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47703/ejebs.v69i3.547

Keywords:

Abortion Economics, Gender Economy, Gender Pay Gap, Female Labor, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Income Inequality, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

Few papers about Central Asia explore the economic effects of abortion on women. This econometric paper the objective is to assess whether abortions in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are associated with women’s economic empowerment. The study finds that when abortions increase, measures of female relative income decrease, in both simple correlations and Ordinary Least Squares regressions. The annual series for 2002-2022 and comparable aggregates for the two countries are used (a total of 32 observations on key variables), where the gender pay gap is defined as the ratio of the average incomes of women to the incomes of men. This implied that Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan had different permanent institutions, such as the labor market. Instrumental-variable analysis, which controls for the impact of the model itself on abortion estimates, showed that a rise of one abortion per 1,000 live births led to a 2% decrease in the female-to-male ratio of average income. The descriptive part reveals a stable negative relationship between abortions and women's relative income: for the 2011-2022 subsample in Kazakhstan, the simple correlation is about -0.63 (statistically significant), which is consistent with the “constraints” hypothesis. The paper concludes that female economic empowerment in Central Asia may depend more on institutions and social structures than on individuals’ short-term reproductive decisions, such as whether to have an abortion.  The findings contradict the theory that abortion empowers women economically by freeing them from raising children so that they can pursue education and careers.

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Author Biographies

Ms. Irina Kovaleva, KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

PhD Candidate, Adjunct Lecturer, Email: irina.kovaleva@kimep.kz

 

Dr. Leon Taylor, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. 

PhD, Former Assistant, Professor, Email: taylorleon@aol.com

Ms. Anastassiya Korosteleva, KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Master of Arts in Economics, Email: anastassiya.korosteleva@kimep.kz

Dr. Alma Kudebayeva, KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

PhD, Associate Professor, Email: almak@kimep.kz

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How to Cite

Kovaleva, I., Taylor, L., Korosteleva, A., & Kudebayeva, A. (2025). More Freedom, Less Equality: The Unexpected Economics of Abortion in Central Asia. Eurasian Journal of Economic and Business Studies, 69(3), 125–139. https://doi.org/10.47703/ejebs.v69i3.547

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Published

2025-09-30