The Economics and Politics of Women's Rights

By Matthias Doepke, Michèle Tertilt, Alessandra Voena. Social Science Research Network, 2012

224 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Women’s rights and economic development are highly correlated. Today, the discrepancy between the legal rights of women and men is much larger in developing compared to developed countries. Historically, even in countries that are now rich women had few rights before economic development took off. Is development the cause of expanding women’s rights, or conversely, do women’s rights facilitate development? We argue that there is truth to both hypotheses. The literature on the economic consequences of women’s rights documents that more rights for women lead to more spending on health and children, which should benefit development. The politicaleconomy literature on the evolution of women’s rights finds that technological change increased the costs of patriarchy for men, and thus contributed to expanding women’s rights. Combining these perspectives, we discuss the theory of Doepke and Tertilt (2009), where an increase in the return to human capital induces men to vote for women’s rights, which in turn promotes growth in human capital and income per capita.

Subfields: Gender Studies, Safety Research, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8e9b0bf055f34fe57bf825b3b0af027212caacce

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Gender Studies

1. Rose Khattar
2. Sonali Jain-Chandra
3. Christian Gonzales
4. K. Kochhar
5. Pauline Grosjean
6. Monique Newiak

In Safety Research

1. Pauline Grosjean
2. Simeon Djankov

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Sonali Jain-Chandra
2. Christian Gonzales
3. K. Kochhar
4. P. Goldberg
5. Pauline Grosjean
6. Simeon Djankov
7. Monique Newiak

Citations in the corpus

• Gendered Laws and Women in the Workforce (2020, background): “A discussion of the relationship between women’s rights and development is provided by Doepke, Tertilt, and Voena (2012), who note that the causation in this relationship can go in both directions.”
• It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah? The Long-Run Consequences of Male-Biased Sex Ratios (2019, background): “…also demonstrated how slow-changing cultural beliefs influence real 7 See Goldin and Katz (2002), Greenwood et al. (2005), Doepke and Tertilt (2009), Doepke et al. (2012), Olivetti (2013). work choices, family formation, and welfare.8 Regarding the origins of such beliefs, the literature has…”
• Families in Macroeconomics (2016, unknown): “In particular, a striking difference between the fields is that almost all macroeconomic models are dynamic, whereas in family economics static modeling is still c The political economy of women’s rights is addressed in more detail by Doepke et al. (2012). common.”
• Fair Play::More Equal Laws Boost Female Labor Force Participation (2015, background): “More equal property rights for men and women stimulate investment by eliminating inefficiencies, are associated with higher GDP per capita, and can shift the composition of public spending related to health, education, and children (Doepke, Tertilt, and Voena 2012).”