Individualism and women's economic rights

Lewis S. Davis and Claudia R. Williamson
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Claudia Williamson Kramer

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2022, vol. 198, issue C, 579-597

Abstract: Individualism is associated with an emphasis on personal liberty and self-determination, values that reduce support for patriarchal norms and increase gender equality. Here, we investigate whether individualism affects women's economics rights, a key institutional determinant of the economic opportunities available to women. We provide evidence of an economically and statistically significant association between individualism and the de facto level of women's economic rights. This result is robust to a variety of controls, including per capita income, women's educational attainment, oil production, historical determinants of patriarchal culture, and the quality of legal and political institutions. In addition, we present evidence that this association is causal, drawing on instruments motivated by roles of climate and disease in cultural evolution. Finally, we show that individualism's influence on women's economic rights is magnified in democratic and common law countries, suggesting that democracies and common law systems channel cultural preferences into legal outcomes.

Keywords: Culture; Individualism; Collectivism; Gender equality; Women's economic rights; Institutions; Political economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 J16 J2 O5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:198:y:2022:i:c:p:579-597

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.04.011

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