Social norms can mitigate the effectiveness of formal institutions, in particular the way legal reforms may affect … women's autonomy. We examine this question in the context of ethnic variation in traditional post-marital cohabitation, i … legal reform that exogenously fostered women's access to justice and their ability to divorce. We theoretically establish …

Egyptian women have played an unprecedented role in the Arab Spring democratic movement, possibly changing women … women's participation over 2011-13. We exploit the geographical heterogeneity along these two margins to conduct a double … difference analysis using data surrounding the period. We find a significant improvement in women's final say regarding decisions …