Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development?

Matthias Doepke and Michele Tertilt

No 8441, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Empirical evidence suggests that money in the hands of mothers (as opposed to their husbands) benefits children. Does this observation imply that targeting transfers to women is good economic policy? We develop a series of noncooperative family bargaining models to understand what kind of frictions can give rise to the observed empirical relationships. We then assess the policy implications of these models. We find that targeting transfers to women can have unintended consequences and may fail to make children better off. Moreover, different forms of empowering women may lead to opposite results. More research is needed to distinguish between alternative theoretical models.

Keywords: Development; Female empowerment; Gender equality; Marital bargaining; Theory of the household (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J16 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (52)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP8441 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Does female empowerment promote economic development? (2019)
Working Paper: Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development? (2019)
Working Paper: Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development (2014)
Working Paper: Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development? (2014)
Working Paper: Does female empowerment promote economic development? (2014)
Working Paper: Does female empowerment promote economic development? (2014)
Working Paper: Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development? (2014)
Working Paper: Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development? (2011)
Working Paper: Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development? (2010)
Working Paper: Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development? (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8441

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP8441

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().