Economic complexity shapes attitudes about gender roles

Athanasios Lapatinas, Anastasia Litina () and Skerdilajda Zanaj

DEM Discussion Paper Series from Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg

Abstract: ! He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman’s daughter. So far we are equal !, Pride and Prejudice, 1813. Imagine if Twitter or the Internet existed in 1813 when Jane Austen wrote the book! Would we observe similar gender roles we see today? Cultural norms that assign different roles to men and women originate from the use of primitive agricultural technologies and evolve with time. Does the knowledge accumulation part of economic growth affect attitudes towards women? We examine this hypothesis relating revealed attitudes of 26,727 to 64,954 individuals coming from 59 countries with the countries’ level of economic complexity. We find a U-shaped relationship. When economic complexity is limited, its further increase deteriorates female emancipation, back-lashing gender roles. However, when economic complexity is high, further knowledge accumulation favours more egalitarian attitudes. Our findings suggest that knowledge, encapsulated into technological advancement and the production of sophisticated goods, ultimately triggers a positive effect on female emancipation. Finally, we find that economic complexity favors the transition of female emancipation from the household into the society, but only when the level of economic development is sufficiently high.

Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-gro and nep-hme
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:luc:wpaper:21-16

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