Project Description

1. Project Information

1.3 Project location and facilities:

The National Institute for Economic Research is located in Chisinau, Ion Creanga str., 45. It has 60 rooms. The project team members (3 persons) from this institute are working in 2 of them: 307, 302. The Institute possesses the necessary infrastructure for research in economic science: own library, a network of 85 computers connected to Internet, printers, scanners, Xerox, fax.

The Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science is located in Chisinau, Academiei str., 5. It has 50 rooms. The project team members (3 persons) from this institute are working in 2 of them: 308, 318. The Institute possesses the necessary infrastructure for research in computer science: own library, a network of 80 computers connected to Internet, printers, scanners, Xerox, fax.

The research team from both institutes has the necessary computer resources (six PCs are available) and capabilities for successful realization of the project.

2.  Detailed Description of Work Plan

2.1 Introduction

What is the problem?

Women represent one half of the global population. They deserve equal access to health, education, decent work, workplaces free from discrimination and political representation. According to the Klaus Schwab - Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum: “People and their talents are two of the core drivers of sustainable, long-term economic growth. If half of these talents are underdeveloped or underutilized, the economy will never grow as it could. Multiple studies have shown that healthy and educated women are more likely to have healthier and more educated children, creating a positive, virtuous cycle for the broader population. … Governments have an important role to play in creating policies that provide women and men with equal access to opportunities, companies must also create workplaces where the best talent can flourish” [1, preface].

The problem of gender equality is significant at the international level, which is reflected in a lot of international acts. Several documents regulating the ensuring of equality between men and women in society were adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. In particular, the problems of equality of rights and possibilities for men and women are separated as an independent theme in the United Nations act “The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women” (CEDAW, 1979). This Convention emphasizes that the discrimination of women, namely, distinction, exclusion, or limitation on the gender base, takes place, and admits that “the change in the traditional role of men as well as the role of women in society and in the family is needed to achieve full equality between men and women..., and the social significance of maternity and the role of both parents in the family and in the upbringing of children, and aware that the role of women in procreation should not be a basis for discrimination but that the upbringing of children requires a sharing of responsibility between men and women and society as a whole” [2, preamble]. Also, the member states of the UN identified this topic as one of the eight Millennium Development Goals.

Also, some of ILO Conventions in the field of women’s rights protection in the employment sphere was an important contribution in the solution of the gender problem in the world. The most important of them are: No. 100 “Convention concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value” (1951); No. 111 “Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation” (1958); No. 122 “Convention concerning Employment Policy” (1964).

According to the World Bank, gender equality enhances economic development, improves prospects for future generations and strengthens political and social systems. Though women now comprise more than 40% of the world’s labor force, they still lag behind men in terms of earnings and productivity. Women also face greater obstacles when it comes to participation in social and political institutions. Particularly in developing nations, the gender gap hinders economic and social development and destabilizes the political environment.

The World Economic Forum has revealed a strong correlation between a country’s competitiveness and how it educates and uses its female talent. It confirms that: “…empowering women means a more efficient use of a nation’s human talent endowment and that reducing gender inequality enhances productivity and economic growth. Over time, therefore, a nation’s competitiveness depends, among other things, on whether and how it educates and utilizes its female talent.” [1, p.39].

On the labour market of each country the problems with gender inequality appear in following aspects: gender vertical and horizontal segregation, discrimination, inequality in payment for similar work with men, in work-home flexibility, etc. At the improvement of gender indicators on the labour market it is necessary to take into consideration a role of the key participants of the labour market (state, employers, trade unions, and society) influencing the employed men and women.

• State: creates political, legislative, and macroeconomic conditions for employment, controls and supervises it.
• Employers: directly forming the labour demand.
• Trade unions: associate and represent workers, provide collective protection, and advance interests of workers before employers and the state.
• Society: forms customs and traditions that establish mentality in the country.

The influenc eof employers on gender equality in employment is really great. It is important to pass the gender-oriented laws, to create gender institutions in the states, but it is also important to solve problems on the micro-economic level. All practical mechanisms of realization of any gender policy at the micro-economic level are closely related with the enterprises of different ownership, sizes, and kinds of activity. Implementation of real practical measures to insure gender equality in employment is reasonable and effective on the level of enterprises. The complexity is that each sep­arate enterprise has its individual system of internal management. The results of gender actions within the framework of such internal control system of the company can be maximal because men and women work at these enterprises daily facing those internal features of the management and rules. Would these practical mechanisms of perfection of gender equality be closely coordinated as a component of internal management of the enterprises, the results from those mechanisms will make positive impact on the particular workers of the particular enterprises.

2.1 Literature Search

What are other people doing?

The gender inequality problems were discussed in 60-70th years of ХХ-th century by American scientists in the neo-classical theory, particularly, by G. Becker, L. Thurow, T. Schultz, etc. Till now the neo-classical direction is the most developed. The economic reasons of men and women inequality and their consequences were researched by the following scientists: P. Doeringer and M. Piore, E. Phelps, D. Aigner and G. Cain, etc. The elaboration of the instruments for the gender equality evaluation in the sphere of employment was reflected in works of the following scientists: R. Anker, O. Duncan, J. Mincer, R. Oaxaca, A. Blinder, etc.

On the basis of "human capital" concept, J. Mincer invented the econometric model, which has established dependence between person’s earnings and educational level, experience, and other factors characterizing the human capital accumulated by the worker [3]. Further, other indicators were included in Mincer's equation, for example, socially-demographic characteristics, such as gender, residence, marital status, enterprise sector (state or private), number of employees at the enterprise, number of subordinates, full/part work time, etc.

Neo-classics explain difference in men and women earnings through "human capital" concept. Distinction in the worker’s personal characteristics, both congenital and acquired, leads to various labour productivity, and, accordingly, are estimated by the employer at the appointment of the wages. According to G. Becker, longer vocational training ensures to the worker higher level of wages in the future [4, p. 35].

To explain existing discrimination in the sphere of employment, neo-classic economists offered three different approaches: discrimination, as consequence of employer preferences, consumer preferences, or work’s collaborator preferences; statistical discrimination; discrimination based on segmentation of labour market and caused by its monopoly structure.

It is necessary to mention the papers of the American scientists: R. Oaxaca “Male-female wage differentials in urban labor markets” [5], and A. Blinder “Wage discrimination: reduced form and structural estimates” [6], which have been appeared concurrently in 1973. In that research they went further than J. Mincer. With the invention of gender decomposition in wages, they have actually offered a method which allows to estimate the gender gap and discrimination in wages.

The theory of propensity to discrimination on the level of preferences or biases from employer, consumer, and worker’s collaborators was introduced by G. Becker in 1957 in his work “The economics of discrimination” [7]. G. Becker set up the assumption that a part of employers preferred recruiting the certain worker’s group, including on the sex basis. For this preference, they are ready to bear additional costs paying bigger salary for those workers groups, which are more preferable for him.

The “Statistical theory of discrimination” is described in works of such American scientists, as: E. Phelps “The statistical theory of racism and sexism” [8], D. Aigner and G. Cain “Statistical theories of discrimination in labor markets” [9]. Statistical discrimination is based on employers "statistical bias", which extend for particular women properties and characteristics that they consider as inherent for all representatives of this sex. If the employer is firmly convinced that the man is capable to perform certain work better than woman, he will make the choice in man’s favour without spending the time to obtain trustworthy information.

The "dual labour market" concept of P. Doeringer and M. Piore [10] assumes that the market is segmented and consists of two segments, kernel and periphery. Men with the high level of wages, stable employment, good labour conditions, and prospects of career growth are concentrated at the kernel. On the contrary, women with low wages, bad labour conditions, and little career possibilities are concentrated at the periphery. It is supposed that transition from one sector to another is limited.

The traditional attitude to women on a labour market as to unstable, unreliable labour force is considered as the main cause of forming and saving of two-sector’s structure. All this leads to their replacement in a secondary sector.

Thus, though the neo-classics claimed within the limits of economic theory that the market functions effectively, actually, the discrimination approach to hiring and career, distinction in payment, subjectively negative attitude to women promoted by the employers cannot be considered as rational actions.

The works of the modern foreign scientists have great value for the development of methodological and theoretical research of gender aspects in a labour market. The methodological aspects dedicated to this theme were analyzed in the papers of the following scientists: E. Mezentseva, K. Fofanova etc. The typology aspects of the country’s social policy were examined in the works of the following researches: G. Esping-Andersen, T. Larsen, H. Melkas and R. Anker, J. Lewis, S. Gal and G. Kligman. The problems of identification and analysis of gender horizontal and vertical segregation, the human capital influencing on men and women wages, the evaluation of gender discrimination in earnings were researched in the works of following present-day scientists: J. Hansen and R. Wahlberg, I. Ganguli and K. Terrell, J. Dolado, F. Felgueroso, J. Jimeno, Y. Guo, M. Baker and N. Fortin, F. Pastore and A. Vereshchagina, D. Andren and Th. Andren, T. Riim and E. Kallaste, M. Johansson and K. Katz, P. Tominc and M. Rebernik, D. Jolliffe, etc. Also, the gender equality problems on a labour market have reflexion in the scientific works of researches from the countries with transitive economy: S. Roshchin, I. Maltzeva, A. Oshepkov, C. Ogloblin, T. Stuken, Z. Hotkina, etc.

The practice of gender audit is widespread in developed countries. The International Labor Organ­ization actively promotes and supports this direction, including its methodological level.

Since 60th of last century, research publications of well-known Moldovan scientists have been dedicated the female labour problems. In the earlier works of the doctor habilitat N. Shishkan widely researched the problems of female labour. In her work “Female labour in the conditions of a developed socialism” (rus.: «Труд женщин в условиях развитого социализма») (1976), she noticed that “being a component of labour, female labour has there are own features” [11, p. 6]. In this work, the characteristics of female labour features in foreign countries in 80^th of the previous epoch are resulted: “... incomplete involving of women in a social production... the big adherence of worked women to unemployment... the women’s discrimination in payment... women’s employment in mainly not qualified and little qualified kinds of labour... the deep antagonistic contradiction between necessity of participation in social activities and motherhood functions performance... join of women to work, mainly with the part time working day or with incomplete working week” [11, p. 23-30]. Concluding, that despite substantial growth of the occupied number of women involving in a social production, participation of women in all branches of the national economy, the high educational level, “the contradictions of female labour… are not resolved yet up to the end” [11, p. 38].

The intensity of scientific contacts with foreign scientists promoted the distribution and development in Moldova of a new scientific direction as gender researches. Though, as it has been told above, the problems of female employment in Moldova were researched by the scientists since 60th of last century, but gender researches in employment have started to research rather recently. Thereupon, it would be notice, that during last years, the most significant scientific publications closely connected with the problems of gender equality in employment sphere, dedicated following works: V.Trofimov “Women and men on the labour market in the Republic of Moldova” (rom.: «Femei şi bărbaţi pe piaţa muncii în Republica Moldova»); A.Birca, D.Vaculovschi, etc. “The women’s situation on a labour market” (rom.: «Situaţia femeilor pe piaţa forţei de muncă»); I.Pirtachi, E.Cara, Il.Pirtachi “Gender inequality in incomes and in other welfare characteristics of the population” (rom.: «Inegalitatea de gen în venituri şi alţi indicatori de bunăstare a populaţiei»); E.Aculai “Conditions for enterprise creation and development: gender analysis”.

The report of the Moldovan researchers group “Revelation of the gender discrimination phenomenon in the labour market of the Republic of Moldova” (rus.: «Выявление феномена дискриминации по полу на рынке труда в Республике Молдова») is dedicated the problems of discrimination on a labour market of Moldova. The results of this research were elaborated within the limits of the project 2005-2006 “Combating gender  discrimination on a labour market and revealing the possibilities to reduction of this phenomenon in the Republic of Moldova” (rus.: «Борьба с дискриминацией по полу на рынке труда и выявление возможностей сокращения этого феномена в Республике Молдова») [12]. By the results of the research “the majority of interviewed persons (80.9%) consider that gender discrimination on the labour market today is a serious problem” and that “basically women are subject to gender discrimination” [12, p. 20]. Generalizing the opinions of interviewed persons, researchers come to the conclusion that: “Gender discrimination on a labour market, which referees to women, takes place at all stages of labour activity: recruiting; payments; promotions on "career ladder"; ensuring maternity leave assistance; dismissals; seek-live assistance; ensuring of vocation; training at the enterprise” [12, p. 30]. Three principal kinds of women’s discrimination are especially maintained: at the recruiting on labour, at the promotions on "career ladder", at the payment [12, p. 29].

How are their results being applied?

The calculations based on extended Mincer’s equation, Duncan index of dissimilarity, the standard Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition were present in many development countries by different scientists. For example, the foreign researchers as: T. Riim, E. Kallaste (2004) in Estonia [15]; A. Galego, J. Pereira (2006) in Portugal [16]; M. Johansson, K. Katz (2006) in Sweden [17]; Y. Guo (2004) in Guatemala [18]; Le Grand C. (1991) in Sweden [19] and scientists from other countries - were applied the method of estimation the difference in wages offered by R. Oaxaca [5] and A. Blinder [6]. This method allows to separate explainable (i.e. caused by personal properties and characteristics of workplaces) differences in wages from unexplainable differences, which are treated as discrimination. But, all these calculations were executed on macroeconomic level as some examples without detailed analyzing of separate enterprises.  

In 2000 the analysis of working conditions and gender inequality was performed by ILO together with leaders and trade union organizations on the basis of the sociological method of interviewing employees in Russian Federation at three pilot plants [13]: Moscow Tire Plant, “Moscow Bearing” plant, “The Paris Commune” enterprise.

In 2007 the ILO published “A manual for gender audit facilitators: The ILO parti­cipatory gender audit methodology” [14].  The methodology of gender audits offered by the ILO is based on the principle of active parti­cipation and uses the sociological methods of analysis. This kind of audit is classified as qualitative. The qualitative analysis performed on the basis of active participation (usually some surveys or questionnaires to all employees or only for some of their categories) brings the risk of subjectivity and data twisting in responses (in one's mind the situation is better or worse than it actually is). In­deed, it is possible to perform a lot of different case studies, examining certain gender aspects of the labor market, but they all show the common picture. In addition, the evidence of gender segregation and pay discrimination are in the economic field, not in sociology. Therefore, it is unlikely to obtain the exhaustive explanation by extremely simple surveys and questionnaires based on the sociological reports.

References

1. Global Gender Gap Report 2014. The World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland, 2014, www3.weforum.org/docs/GGGR14/GGGR_CompleteReport_2014.pdf
2. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18.12.1979, http://www.un.org/Docs/asp/ws.asp?m=A/RES/34/180, Optional Protocol (6.10.1999), http://www.un.org/Docs/asp/ws.asp?m=A/RES/54/4
3. MINCER J. Schooling, experience and earnings. New York: Columbia University Press for National Bureau of Economic Research, 1974.
4. BECKER G.S. Human capital, effort, and the sexual division of labour. Journal  of  Labour  Economics, 1985, v.3, p. 33-58.
5. OAXACA R. Male-female wage differentials in urban labor markets. International Economic Review, October 1973, vol. 14, No. 3, p. 693-709, http://www.irs.princeton.edu/pubs/ pdfs/23.pdf
6. BLINDER A. Wage discrimination: reduced form and structural estimates. The Journal of Human Resources, 1973, Fall, vol. 8. No. 4, p. 436-455.
7. BECKER G.S. The economics of discrimination. Second Edition, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London, 1971. 167 p.
8. PHELPS E. The statistical theory of racism and sexism. American Economic Review 62, September 1972, p. 659-661, http://www.jstor.org/pss/1806107
9. AIGNER D.J., CAIN G. Statistical theories of discrimination in labor markets. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 1977, vol. 30, No. 2, p. 175-187, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2522871
10. DOERINGER P., PIORE M. Internal labor markets and manpower analysis. Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1971. 168 p.
11. ШИШКАН Н. Труд женщин в условиях развитого социализма. Под редакцией академика АН МССР Фролова Н.П.. Кишинев: Штиинца, 1976. 214 с.
12. Percepţia fenomenului de discriminare de gen pe piaţa muncii din Republica Moldova: Results of the pilot-study. Chisinau: CNSIPF, Bons Offices, 2006. 64 p.
13. Гендерное равенство на рабочем месте - опыт российских предприятий. Москва: МОТ, 2000. 66 с.
14. A manual for gender audit facilitators: The ILO participatory gender audit methodology. Geneva: ILO, 2007. 150 p., http://www.ilo.org/dyn/gender/ docs/RES/536/F932374742/web%20gender%20manual.pdf
15. РЫЫМ Т., КАЛЛАСТЕ Э. Мужчины и женщины на рынке труда Эстонии: оценка различий в заработной плате. Анализ политики, PRAXIS, 2004, No. 8. 24 с., http://www.praxis.ee/ fileadmin/tarmo/Publikatsioonid/PA82004_rus.pdf
16. GALEGO A., PEREIRA J. Evidence on gender wage discrimination in Portugal: parametric and semi-parametric approaches. Universidade de Evora, Departamento de Economia, Documento de Trabalho, October 2006, No. 13, 20 p.
17. JOHANSSON M., KATZ K. Wage differences between women and men in Sweden – the impact of skill mismatch. IFAU Working paper 2007:13, October 17, 2006. 58 p., http://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2007/wp07-13.pdf
18. GUO Y. Male-female wages differentials in Guatemala: 1989-1998. Advisor: Dr. GINDLING T. ECON 699 Paper, 23.04.2004. 15 p., http://www.umbc.edu/economics/ grad_699_abstracts/ y_guo_paper.pdf
19. LE GRAND C. Explaining the male-female wage gap: Job segregation and solidarity wage bargaining in Sweden. Acta Sociologica, 1991, No. 34, p. 261–278.

2.3 Purpose and Objective

What are we are going to do?

The purpose of the project is to develop the innovative software for gender equality regulation on the labour market, which is using statistical and econometrical methods.

Innovative software for gender equality regulation on the labour market represent the gender audit at an enterprise is the independent inspection/checkup of the enterprise to ana­lyze, monitor, and identify gender problems of the staff, with subsequent elaboration of proposals to improve the company policy in the direction of gender equality. Innovative software is a tool for the enter­prise gender management at the microeconomic level.

The elaborated software should become the starting point on a microeconomic level of the company’s internal management. The role of the gender audit in the sphere of enterprises management consists not only in independent check of a current situation. The independent audit participates actively in the formation of internal aspects of company manage­ment, creates the recommendations on the questions of internal management, and assumes the con­trol mechanism over the promotion of the offered measures by repeated or cross-control audits. The similar experience from other directions exists: the financial audit became an integral part of an in­ternal control system of the large and medium companies; the audit of quality standards ISO 9000 affects in the same manner.

IT aspect of this project is also very important. With information technologies, scattered and separated data would be processed into reliable operative information for decision making. The supposed application of IT in the framework of this project, namely, regulation of gender equality on the labour market, is actual, and waits for development of the corresponding applicative software.

The engagement of IT professionals to the implementation of this project guarantees higher quality of the developed software. The proper organization of the software development cycle, friendly user interface, simple installation and exploitations of the developed software and other specific aspects are of key importance for success of the presented project. Only professionals in the area can take into account all concerned details and properly solve aroused problems.

Accordingly, the innovative software should become that practical mechanism on a microeconomic level, which will be closely build into the system of internal management of the companies and, besides checking of the current condition of gender equality, will allow to develop the most concrete, approaching to conditions of the given enterprise, recommendations on perfec­tion of regulation of gender equality, and carry out check of performance of these recommenda­tions. As such practical mechanism, the elaborated software will allow to overcome con­tradictions between the accepted laws at nation-wide level and their realization at the concrete en­terprises. It is necessary to note the feedback effect, when the elaborated software on the level of separate enterprises will render a positive effect at macroeconomic level. Besides it, indirect influ­ence on change of gender stereotypes in a society is possible also.

What is the objective?

The main objective of our project is to realize and implement on a labour market the special methods and instruments witch will contribute to gender equality, social cohesion and protection in the sphere of employment, which ultimately leads to increased well-being both individual and companies and the society as a whole.

The specific objectives of the project are the following:

• to elaborate integrated methodology of applying econometrical and statistical methods for analyzing data of enterprises in the gender aspect;
• to develop the innovative software for gender equality regulation on the labour market, which is using of this elaborated methodology;
• to develop form and presentation of innovative software obtained results;
• to develop Gender Analysis Summarized Index (GASI) of ranks and scores of results.

The results of this work may become an impulse to developing a new instrument in gender equality regulation on the labour markets of different countries and in the society as a hole.

2.4 Expected Significance

What’s new?

The elaborated software, as the element of gender management of the enterprises, represents one of the newest world tendencies in the field of gender regulation of a labour market. Innovative software should include not only the analysis of the current condition of gender equality at the enterprise, but assumes also producing specific proposals on situation improvement in this sphere. Also, it is necessary to have mechanisms of the subsequent control over realization of these offers. In this case innovative software becomes "starting point" of all gender manage­ment on a microeconomic level of the separate enterprises and will bring real advantage both to men and women, and to employers.

The scientific novelty and originality of the proposed investigation seems to be the next step in the development of approaches to gender equality at the micro-economic level as an important component of the evolution of gender-based management. Using the developing software will be calculated in one program in very short time the following: the value of gender horizontal and vertical segregation on the enterprises, the human capital influence on the value of men and women wages, the degree of gender discrimination in payment, etc.

The methodology of gender audits offered by ILO is based on the principle of active parti­cipation and uses the sociological methods of analysis. This kind of audit is classified as qualitative. The qualitative analysis performed on the basis of active participation (usually some surveys or questionnaires to all employees or only for some of their categories) brings the risk of subjectivity and data twisting in responses (in one's mind the situation is better or worse than it actually is). In­deed, it is possible to perform a lot of different case studies, examining certain gender aspects of the labor market, but they all show the common picture. In addition, the evidence of gender segregation and pay discrimination are in the economic field, not in sociology. Therefore, it is unlikely to obtain the exhaustive explanation by extremely simple surveys and questionnaires based on the sociological reports.

These circumstances can motivate the need for innovative software by economic methods, requiring a more detailed analysis of the economic data of enterprises. Thus, not opposing to the standard meth­odology of qualitative audit proposed by the ILO with the use of sociological methods, we propose a new innovative software as quantitative gender inspection/checkup of enterprises, based on the analysis of economic indicators of the enterprise that uses the techniques of statistical and econometrical analysis. 

2.5 Organization, Qualification and Staffing

Organizations:

• The National Institute for Economic Research (NIER) of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova is a public institution (think-tank) which deals with scientific economic research. The main beneficiaries are Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Protection, Academy of Sciences and others. The Institute collaborates with numerous Moldovan and foreign academic centers, with central and local administration bodies, as well as representatives of business and social stakeholders. Main activities are related to scientific researches in economy, finance, statistics, reforming of social sphere and integration of the Republic of Moldova in world economic circuit. NIER has the necessary experience and capacities for realization of projects and can be a reliable partner in the future. Former experience covers a wide variety of applied research on the evolution of economic and social processes in Moldova, insuring a stable economic growth and high living standards. The most important research directions are: Economic and financial models, mechanisms for sustainable growth; Business and investment environment; Agricultural policies and informational base for rural development in the context of food safety; Demographic and social development policies. NIER has been a participant of a number of national and international research projects financed by European Commission (INTAS, FP5, FP6, FP7), TACIS, UNESCO, UNDP, EUHLPAM, Visegrad Fund. One of the main research directions of the NIER is fundamental and applied researches in the domain of labour market, gender equality regulation, business environment, enterprises development. The proposed project represents continuation and new development of the research, carried out by NIER.

• The Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science (IMCS) of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova is the leading research institute in the domain of mathematics and computer science in the Republic of Moldova. IMCS was founded in 1964. The results achieved by its researchers and specialists won the recognition of scientific community, covering different fields of mathematics and computer science: algebra, logic, geometry, topology, differential equations, mathematical modeling and optimization, numerical methods, theory of probability, programming and artificial intelligence, models of computing, advanced information technologies. IMCS publishes two peer-reviewed international journals: "Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of Republic of Moldova" and "Computer Science Journal of Moldova", distributed in approximately 160 scientific centers from 47 countries. IMCS has been a participant of a number of national and international research projects financed by European Commission (INTAS, FP5, FP6, FP7), CRDF/MRDA, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, NATO, UNESCO, UNDP, and STCU.

Persons on the team:

1. Tatiana Colesnicova, PhD in Economic Science, Associate Professor in Economic Science, Leading scientific researcher, Head of the Department “Social Researches and Standards of Living”, the team leader – NIER;
2. Eugenia Lucasenco, PhD student in Economic Science, scientific researcher – NIER;
3. Mihail Ciobanu, PhD student in Economic Science, MSc degree in Demography and Population Economics, scientific researcher – NIER;
4. Alexandru Colesnicov, PhD in Computer Science, Associate Professor in Computer Science, Leading scientific researcher – IMCS;
5. Elvira Naval, PhD in Computer Sciences, Associate Professor in Computer Science, Leading scientific researcher – IMCS;
6. Ludmila Malahov, MSc degree in Computer Science, scientific researcher – IMCS.  

Tatiana Colesnicova. Ph.D. in Economic Science from NIER, 2011. Associate Professor in Economy and Management (in social sphere), 2013. From 2015 she is the Head of the NIER Department “Social Research and Standards of Living”. She is a member of the NIER Methodical Commission, Profile Scientific Seminar. During 2011-2018 she has participated in 26 national and international Scientific Conferences and symposiums. She was reporter on the 7 roundtables. Her main research interests include different social economic problems, gender equality regulation on the labour marker, labour economics, econometric modeling. She has more than 100 publications in these areas. She is author of the monograph “Gender equality regulation in the sphere of employment in the Republic of Moldova” (in English), ed. by NIER, 2012. She participated at several international projects. Participant in creating quarterly edition NIER with the support of EUHLPAM, financed by the European Union and implemented by UNDP Moldova "Moldovan Economic Trends"/"Tendinţe în Economia Moldovei" (in Romanian and English) during the years 2011 – 2019 (No.1-34) - responsible of the chapter that evaluates the main trends of the Moldovan social sphere. Participant in elaboration Strategies for Moldovan regional socio-economic development: Călăraşi, Rezina, Ialoveni, Leova, Orhei, Straseni.

Eugenia Lucasenco, Ph.D. student of NIER in University of Academy of Sciences of Moldova (specialization – economy and management), MSc degree in foreign affairs, scientific researcher within the NIER. She has over 15 publications and participations at national and international conferences. She has been involved in 2 national and 3 international projects and elaboration of socio-economic strategies for several districts from the Republic of Moldova. Participated in creating quarterly edition NIER with the support of EUHLPAM, financed by the European Union and implemented by UNDP Moldova "Moldovan Economic Trends"/"Tendinţe în Economia Moldovei" (in Romanian and English) during the years 2011 – 2015 (Nr.1-16) - responsible of the chapter that evaluates the main political, economic and social events from the Republic of Moldova. She has participated in several national projects (as a team member).

Mihail Ciobanu. , Ph.D. student of NIER in University of Academy of Sciences of Moldova (specialization – economy and management), MSc degree in Demography and Population Economics, ASEM, 2015. Licentiate degree in General Economics, ASEM, 2013. His main research interests are social economic problems, social inequality, labour economics, social policy, marginalized groups, econometric modeling. He published 10 scientific papers. He participated in national projects (as a team member).

Alexandru Colesnicov. Ph.D. in Computer Science from IMCS, 1996. Associate Professor in Computer Science, 2000. Leading scientific researcher of IMCS. He is a high-qualified specialist in computer networks, operating systems and programming systems. He has 93 publications in the area of theoretical computer science and natural computing. His main research interests are computer algebra, computer linguistics, natural language processing, and natural computing. He participated at several international projects. Alexandru Colesnicov participated in projects in military area.

Elvira Naval. Ph.D. in Computer Science from IMCS, 1990. Associate Professor in Computer Science, 1994. Leading scientific researcher of IMCS. Her main research interests are mathematical modeling of economic development in stochastic environment, mathematical statistics, discrete optimal control. She has more than 120 publications in these areas. Elvira is also a co-author of three books in domains of region development in the long perspective, econometrics and economic growth. She participated at several international projects (also as a team leader). Elvira Naval participated in projects in military area.

Ludmila Malahov. MSc degree in Computer Science from Chisinau State University, Department of Applied Mathematics, 1970. Scientific researcher in IMCS. She has a significant experience in computer science including computer graphics, formal languages, computer algebra, natural language processing, and natural computing with 99 papers published in international journals, books and conference proceedings. She has a long experience of participation in national and international projects (as a team member). Ludmila Malahov participated in projects in military area.

How does this project relates to our other work?

In our previous scientific research we investigated:

• the theoretical and methodological aspects of gender equality regulation in the sphere of employment: existing conceptual approaches to solution of problems with gender inequality in the sphere of employment; the models of gender regulation and their implementation in social policy of the different countries; the situation with gender equality regulation in the sphere of employment in the Republic of Moldova; the methodological approaches for gender analysis implementation in the sphere of employment in the national economy; the terminological concepts are explained.
• the gender dimension of employment in the Republic of Moldova: the evaluation of gender situation in the sphere of employment in the Republic of Moldova and existing gender based problems in it are specified. The following researches stages are outlined: the identification, measurement and analysis of horizontal and vertical segregation; the evaluation of human capital influence on men and women wages; the empirical analysis of the factors influencing on probability of men and women to be employed; the evaluation of discrimination in payment; the entrepreneurship analysis in gender aspect; the gender research of the main problems in the sphere of informal employment.
• the main directions to perfect gender equality regulation in employment in the Republic of Moldova: the uniform system of measures and proposals, constructed according to the major roles of the main subjects of the labour market (state, employers, trade unions, society) influencing on employed men and women is formulated. The instrument for development of measures for gender regulation as gender audit for enterprises which should become the key element in the gender management system on the microeconomic level is worked over and explained in details. Its purposes, tasks, the methodology are determined.

In our previous researches the gender analysis were proposed as a key element in the gender management system. That’s why current propose project is a logical continuation of this research.

The main results of our previous research were published in different international and national journals and conferences. Some of these are the following:

1. COLESNICOVA T., MALAHOV L., COLESNICOV A. Some applications of IT in gender studies. In: Economic growth in conditions of internationalization=Creşterea economică în condiţiile internaţionalizării: Conferinţa X ştiinţifico-practică internaţională din 15-16 octombrie 2015: (în 2 vol.). Ch.: INCE, 2015, vol. II, - 252 p. ISBN 978-9975-4185-2-2, p.201-204
2. COLESNICOVA T. Gender equality regulation in the sphere of employment in the Republic of Moldova. Monograph. Ch.: Complex Ed. al IEFS. 2012, CZU 316.346.2(478), C62, ISBN 978-9975-4326-5-8, - 175 p.
3. COLESNICOVA T.  Gender horizontal inequality on the labour market of Moldova. In: Revista economică, Chişinău–Sibiu, 2009, No. 2(45), p. 162–168.
4. COLESNICOVA T. Approaches to estimation of the value for working women’s labor at the household in Moldova. In: Revista economică, Chişinău–Sibiu, 2008, No. 5-6, vol. II, p. 136-145.
5. COLESNICOVA T. Characteristics of women’s entrepreneurship in the Republic of Moldova. In: Preocupări contemporane ale ştiinţelor socio-umane: Conferinţa ştiinţifică internaţională din 16 decembrie 2010. Chişinău: ULIM, 2011, (in edition).
6. COLESNICOVA T. Empirical analysis of social-economic factors which influence the probability to be employed for gender groups in the Republic of Moldova. In: Culegere după materialele Conferinţei ştiinţifică naţională cu participare internaţională (Ediţia a XXV-a) „Progrese în teoria deciziilor economice în condiţii de risc şi încertitudine”, România, Institutul de Cercetări Economice şi Sociale „Gh. Zane”, Academia Română – Filiala Iaşi, 17.09.2010, vol. XI, p.117–126.
7. COLESNICOVA T. Informal economy of Moldova in gender aspect. In: Economie şi sociologie, Chişinău: IEFS, 2010, No.2, p.242–253.
8. COLESNICOVA T. Evaluation of the human capital influence on men and women salaries in the Republic of Moldova. In: Economie şi sociologie, Chişinău: IEFS, 2011, No.1, p.204–213.
9. COLESNICOVA T. The measurement and analysis of the gender segregation in Moldova. In: Work Papers of the Firth Edition of International Scientific Conference from 21-22 October 2010 „Economic growth in conditions of internationalization”, Chişinău: IEFS. p.155–161.
10. TURCAN A., COLESNICOVA T. Gender peculiarities of entrepreneurship in the Republic of Moldova. În: Cross-Cultural Management Journal. Romania: Iași. Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence (FRIA – Fundația Română pentru Inteligența Afacerii), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași Publising. CMJ 29, Volume XV, Issue 3 (29) / 2013, ISSN-L: 2286-0452, p.369-375, 0,42 c.a. [Access 28.10.2013] http://www.cmj.bxb.ro/Article/CMJ_29_43.pdf
    or http://cmj.bxb.ro/2013-29-cmj-volume-xv-issue-3-special-issue-collaborative-structures-vs-competition-between-organizations-multydisciplinary-dimensions/
11. ПЕРЧИНСКАЯ Н.П., КОЛЕСНИКОВА T.В. Инновационный подход к гендерному регулированию на микро-экономическом уровне в Республике Молдова. In: Инновации: научно-практический ежемесячный журнал. Санкт-Петербург: Россия, ОАО «Трансфер», 2012, март, nr.03(161), -120 с. ISSN 2071-3010, стр.61-67
12. КОЛЕСНИКОВА T. Гендерные особенности предпринимательства в Республике Молдова. In: Simpozionul VII internaţional al tinerilor cercetători din 10-11 aprilie 2009. Chişinău: ASEM, 2009, vol. I, p. 61-63.
13. КОЛЕСНИКОВА Т. Гендерное вертикальное неравенство на рынке труда Молдовы. In: Economie şi sociologie, Chişinău: IEFS, 2009, No.2, p. 151–159.
14. КОЛЕСНИКОВА T. Опыт регулирования гендерного равенства в сфере занятости в Республике Молдова. În: Analele Institutului de Economie, Finanţe şi Statistică. Ch.: IEFS, 2011, -184 p. ISSN 1857-3630, ISBN 978-9975-4176-4-8, p.176-179
15. КОЛЕСНИКОВА T., ЯЦИШИН Т. Анализ моделей социальных политик различных стран с позиции гендерного регулирования. În: Conferinţa ştiinţifică de totalizare a activităţii de cercetare a cadrelor didactice din 12-13 mai 2011, Univ. de Stat "Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu" din Cahul; Tipogr. "Centrografic" SRL, vol. II, 2011, -155 p. ISBN 978-9975-914-58-1, p.133-144
16. COLESNICOVA T. Analiza problemelor de gen în IMM-urile Moldovei. In: Analele ale Institutului Umanistic Contemporan. Chişinău: Institutului Umanistic Contemporan, 2010, вып. 6-7, ISSN 1857-1271, p.187-191.
17. COLESNICOVA T., SAVCENCO S. Analiza de gen a cadrelor științifice din activitatea de cercetare-dezvoltare a Moldovei. In: Economic growth in conditions of internationalization=Creşterea economică în condiţiile internaţionalizării: Conferinţa VIII ştiinţifico-practică internaţională din 17-18 octombrie 2013. Ch.: INCE, 2013, vol. II, -384 p. ISBN 978-9975-4185-2-2, p.247-251
18. COLESNICOVA T. Tendințe în sfera ocupării forței de muncă a Republicii Moldova prin prisma egalității de gen. In: Culegere după materialele Conferinţei științifice naționale din 01 noiembrie 2013 „Probleme actuale a sectorului social și căile de soluționare a acestora în Republica Moldova” organizată de Asociația Oamenilor de Știință din Moldova „N. Milescu Spătaru” AȘM. Ch.: INCE, 2014, - 80 p., ISBN 978-9975-4185-8-4, p.45-61.

The results of the project will be a good base to continue our work with cooperation with our European partners in the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, which will move our team closer to financial stability.

2.6 Expected results

What will be done in the framework of this project?

We are going to develop:

• Integrated methodology of applying econometrical and statistical methods for analyzing data of enterprises in gender aspect;
• New innovative software for quantitative gender analysis of enterprises, which is using of this elaborated methodology;
• Elaborated innovative software to be presented as a web-site portal;
• Form and presentation of new software obtained results;
• Gender Analysis Summarized Index (GASI) of ranks and scores of results.
• Marketing information on the possible implementation of the project results which will contribute to finding further funding possibilities.

By this time, throughout the developed world, the evolution and penetration of the information technology in business is quite high. Almost all medium and large companies, as well as many smaller ones use automated accounting systems or integrated enterprise management systems. Thus the company in any way accumulates information and statistics that can be used as in­put data in the application of statistical and econometric techniques for elaborated software. For example, in Moldova, most companies use automated accounting and personnel records through the informa­tion platform UNA.MD/Universal Accounting, or 1C. At the same time the Moldovan legislation obliges companies to keep records of workers by sex, including computerized ones. These allow viewing this software in the Republic of Moldova as a reliable source of data to quantitative economic gender audit. Accordingly, the need of making complex sociological ques­tionnaires is reduced, because a lot of the necessary data is already available in the informational systems.

Using the exact data got from the new software cardinally increases the objectivity of the estimations and audit.

Suggesting method of audit, from the algorithmic and methodological points of view, is rather complicated and apply many different methods, econometric and statistical calculations, providing interaction with information systems, using a large amount and variety of indicators. But the speed of such audit, with pre-established methodology and the availability of specialized computer program, could be greatly enhanced. Gender audit can be implemented very quickly. Since the total time spent on audits is reduced, financial costs to the organization and conduct for gender audits can be significantly reduced, which is especially important. The most effective technique is the combination of the proposed new software as method of quantitative gender audit based on statistical and econometric methods, and standard method of quality audit proposed by the ILO.

The Gender Analysis Summarized Index (GASI) – the index of ranks and scores of results is calculated. This index is compile the values of all received results and is very comfortable for quick comparable of results per enterprises, received the ranks and scores and so on.

What’s next?

The elaboration of the innovative software quantitative gender analysis of enterprises can be used by NGO’s, national and international institutes, companies of all types and sizes, etc. The results obtained by this software will contribute to gender equality, social cohesion and protection on the labor market, which ultimately leads to increased well-being, both individual and companies, and the society as a whole. Thus, the results of this project may be considered as a starting point in developing of a new direction in gender equality regulation.

The results of our research will be published in major international journals and conferences and may be useful for many teams interested in solving the problems with gender equality including in labour market. We plan to continue our work with our European, U.S.A. and Canadian partners in the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, and under the bilateral projects.

2.7 Scope of activities

How will the investigation be organized?

The work will be split on 8 main stages. They are:

• Stage 1. Analysis of existing methods and tools. Q1
• Stage 2. Marketing. Q1-Q7
• Stage 3. Elaboration of the methodology for the innovative software. Q2-Q3
• Stage 4. The technical outline of the innovative software. Q3
• Stage 5. Elaboration of software. Q4-Q5
• Stage 6. Debugging, testing and integration of elaborated software. Q6
• Stage 7. Pilot implementation of elaborated software and applying fixes based on results. Q7
• Stage 8. Final project report. Q7-Q8

2.9 Sustainability Planning

Which “Market will we study?

The potential users of our results are the international and national organizations interested in research of gender equality problems. On the national level the potential users may be the governmental and non-governmental organizations and private enterprises. Our investigations, as well the investigations in gender equality regulation which are carried out in Europe, U.S.A. and Canada may bring revolutionary changes in solving many gender problems on the labour market. We will continue our investigation in the scope of extend of analyzing methods with close cooperation with the teams from: Romania (National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection, University “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” from Iasi), Hungary (Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Szent Istvan University - Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences) and others.

In order to find funding possibilities we will cooperate with the teams mentioned above and apply for a grant at the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020. We will also use possibilities of bilateral cooperation, including local funding competitions (Moldova).

What is our specific market research objective?

The results obtained from the elaborated software will make possible to enlarge the market of the potential users, including different international and national organizations from gender domain. During the project implementation our team intends:

• to gather sufficient information about organizations interested in efficient solutions to practical problems of high computational complexity, which can be successfully solvable using informational system of gender audit of enterprises;
• to collect sufficient information about the potential users of the software complex, developed  in the framework of the project, who need interfaces to model, simulate and process results of investigations;
• to advertise the software complex and its advantages at scientific conferences, workshops and exhibitions, and at the project website as well.

We have included a professional manager with experience in IT product promotion and software development in our team. His experience will be used in all business and marketing aspects of our project.

What are we going to do?

First of all we are going to elaborate the software complex integrate in the web-portal, for the problems in the domain of gender equality regulation on the labour market included in this project. Furthermore, we intend to implement the elaborated program on some enterprises of different size and kind of activity. We are also going to present our results at different meetings, symposiums and conferences, visit laboratories and scientific centers, establish a close cooperation between our team and other teams from different countries.