The economics of women’s rights

Michèle Tertilt, Matthias Doepke, Anne Hannusch and Laura Montenbruck

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Two centuries ago, in most countries around the world, women were unable to vote, had no say over their own children or property, and could not obtain a divorce. Women have gradually gained rights in many areas of life, and this legal expansion has been closely intertwined with economic development. We aim to understand the drivers behind these reforms. To this end, we distinguish between four types of dwomen’s rights—economic, political, labor, and body—and document their evolution over the past 50 years across countries. We summarize the political-economy mechanisms that link economic development to changes in women’s rights and show empirically that these mechanisms account for a large share of the variation in women’s rights across countries and over time.

Keywords: women's rights; female suffrage; family economics; bargaining; political economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D72 E24 J12 J16 N30 N40 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2022-12-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-his and nep-pol
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Published in Journal of the Economic Association, 21, December, 2022, 20(6), pp. 2271 – 2316. ISSN: 1542-4766

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/117369/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Economics of Women’s Rights (2022)
Working Paper: The Economics of Women's Rights (2022)
Working Paper: The Economics of Women's Rights (2022)
Working Paper: The Economics of Women's Rights (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:117369

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