Kumon, Yuzuru; Sakai, Kazuho - 2022
Using new evidence from servant contracts, 1600-1890, we estimate women’s wages in Japan. Women’s wages could only … low, so women were not economically autonomous. Second, landownership incomes were mostly earned by men, raising their … bargaining positions. The low female empowerment in Japan could explain the early and universal marriage of its women unlike …