Female autonomy generated successful long-term human capital development: Evidence from 16th to 19th century Europe

Joerg Baten and Alexandra de Pleijt ()

No 13348, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Does higher female autonomy increase human capital formation? To find out, we employ novel data on numeracy as a proxy for human capital and the demographic indicator female age at marriage as a measure for female autonomy for 27 countries and 153 regions in Europe between 1500 and 1900. Our empirical analysis shows that countries and regions with a relatively high level of female autonomy became success cases and pioneers in long-term human capital development. Because women had an advantage in dairy-farming, we approach endogeneity issues by exploiting variation in gender-biased agricultural specialization.

Keywords: Human capital formation; Female autonomy; Early modern growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N13 N33 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Journal Article: Female autonomy generated successful long-term human capital development: Evidence from 16th to 19th century Europe (2022)
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