A strictly economic explanation of gender norms: The lasting legacy of the plough

Alessandro Cigno

CHILD Working Papers Series from Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA

Abstract: We show that the descendants of primeval plough users have an interest in maintaining the gender division of labour which was originally justi.ed on comparative-advantage grounds, even though in a modern economy individual productivity depends on education rather than physical characteristics. The result rests on the argument that the contract enforcement technology developed in response to the availability of the plough serves a purpose also in a modern economy because of a possible hold-up problem in the implementation of a Nash-bargaining equilibrium with domestic division of labour.

Keywords: Plough; comparative advantage; matching; hold-up problem; migration. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro and nep-gth
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cca:wchild:74

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