There’s an obvious moral case for promoting gender equality around the world, but there’s also an economic one. Countries that give opportunities to girls and women tend to do better economically, while those that don’t do less well. Almost all the least well-off countries in the world rank poorly for gender equality, because, as a new report puts it, “discrimination against women and girls carries a high development cost.”

The OECD Development Center‘s new Social Institutions and Gender Index looks at the “underlying structural barriers that deny women’s rights and their access to justice, resources and empowerment opportunities.” It’s based on data from 160 countries and covers “social norms, practices and laws”—like the age at which girls can legally marry, the level of “son bias” (where families deliberately push boys […]