Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58668 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6215
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Women's rights and economic development are highly correlated. Today, the discrepancy between the legal rights of women and men is much larger in developing compared to developed countries. Historically, even in countries that are now rich women had few rights before economic development took off. Is development the cause of expanding women's rights, or conversely, do women's rights facilitate development? We argue that there is truth to both hypotheses. The literature on the economic consequences of women's rights documents that more rights for women lead to more spending on health and children, which should benefit development. The political-economy literature on the evolution of women's rights finds that technological change increased the costs of patriarchy for men, and thus contributed to expanding women's rights. Combining these perspectives, we discuss the theory of Doepke and Tertilt (2009), where an increase in the return to human capital induces men to vote for women's rights, which in turn promotes growth in human capital and income per capita.
Subjects: 
women's rights
political economy
development
JEL: 
J10
N30
O10
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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