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social services (see Chapter 3). There are key stagesin the life cycle when the impact of investing inhuman beings is particularly significant for realizingtheir potential. Early childhood and the transitionfrom youth to adulthood are stages of heightenedvulnerability, when the failure to adequatelyinvest in human capacities can have long-termconsequences for the realization of rights. Moreover,investments in human beings are essential for thesustainable functioning of the economy within whichhuman rights are realized. Yet the macroeconomicimplications of these investments are rarelyrecognized.An alternative approach to macroeconomicswould make explicit these connections betweensocial investments and economic outcomes andprioritize social policies and care work as key areasof investment for the long-term realization of rights.This would introduce the possibility of using fiscalexpansion to mobilize resources for gender equalityand enhance the scope for financing economicand social investments and supporting care work toreduce women’s socio-economic disadvantage.Investing in early childhood developmentInvestments in early childhood development havelong-term macroeconomic implications but aretypically ignored in macroeconomic policy-making.Such investments affect cognitive development,subsequent educational achievement and healthoutcomes, with important consequences for overalleconomic performance. 100 In other words, theyaffect the realization of certain economic and socialrights over time. The quality of investments madein children, however, is correlated with households’socio-economic status, providing a channelfor the transmission of poverty and inequalityacross generations. 101 In order to prevent socialinequality deepening over time and to equalizereal opportunities, macroeconomic policies needto support adequate investment in the childhooddevelopment of low-income households inparticular.Unpaid care and domestic work is central to thisinvestment in early childhood development. Directinteractions between children and caregivers—including speech, gestures, facial expressions,physical contact and body movements—providethe stimulation necessary for children’s cognitivedevelopment. 102 This direct care represents acritical component of the unpaid labour necessaryto keep an economy going, and which, becauseof its long-term consequences, needs to berecognized in macroeconomic policy.This raises a fundamental challenge formacroeconomic policy. Care work is necessaryto the investment in human beings required tosupport a viable macroeconomic environment.But the current distribution of unpaid care anddomestic work between women and men ishighly unequal, as shown in Chapter 2, and so itentrenches women’s socio-economic disadvantageand perpetuates the undervaluation of thiswork. To redress this disadvantage and advancesubstantive equality, public investments in basicinfrastructure and social services can be made toreduce and redistribute unpaid care and domesticwork through, for example, investments in basicsocial infrastructure and childcare services (seeChapter 3).Investing in youth and the demographictransitionAs Chapter 2 highlighted, the transition fromadolescence into young adulthood is a periodof heightened vulnerability for young womenand men—with long-term consequences forthe enjoyment of rights over the course oftheir lives. Studies suggest, for example, thatconditions experienced before the age of18 explain approximately 50 per cent of thevariation in lifelong earnings. 103 Youth transitionsare therefore not only critical for employmentpolicies but also have far-reaching implicationsfor macroeconomic performance and humandevelopment.The overall demographic structure of aneconomy has an important influence oneconomic development and living standards.In many lower-income countries in South Asiaand sub-Saharan Africa, the youth share of thepopulation is sizeable. Young people represent