This paper examines the long-term link between British colonialism and women empowerment in India. We compare women's contemporary economic outcomes across areas that were under direct British colonial rule with areas that were under indirect colonial rule. Controlling for selective annexation...

The Covid-19 crisis has been defined as a "She-recession" because of its disproportionate impact on female employment by contrast to past recessions defined as "Man-recessions", for the usual disproportionate impact on men. The roots of the She-recession can be however traced back to the...

The paper examines the short-term implications of urbanization on women empowerment in India. In theory, urbanization can affect women either positively or negatively. Women in urban areas, compared to their rural counterparts, are thought to enjoy greater social, economic, and political...

Contraception is a crucial tool that empowers women to control their bodily autonomy. Concurrently, violence against women remains a pressing public-health issue depleting women's autonomy. We establish a causal link between the decision to use contraception and the occurrence of intimate...

This study provides a thorough examination of the evolving gender gap in time allocated to housework in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis. With data from the American Time Use Survey (2015-2022), our findings reveal a significant trend towards greater equality in the allocation of household...

Family planning is a critical issue in countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, where high fertility rates coexist with low contraceptive use alongside ad- verse perinatal outcomes. Using a combination of ethnographic, ecological, and folklore data, we investigate the role played in...

Fertility rates have fallen below replacement levels in many economies. We examine the relationship between female incomes and fertility for college graduates in the United States. Female income is likely endogenous to fertility, and candidate instrumental variables are likely imperfect. We use...

This paper examines whether granting property inheritance rights to women improves their participation in politics as election candidates in India. In patriarchal societies like India, conservative gender norms often discourage women from active political engagement, reinforced by social...

This research investigates why some women like STEM occupations more than others. We show that this phenomenon is rooted in historical kin-based norms and specific aspects of cognition, perceptions, and aspirations enforced by the normative demands of ancestral societies. Using a sub-population...

This paper discusses research on the relationship between fertility and women's labour force participation. It surveys methods used to obtain causal identification, and provides an overview of the evidence of causal effects in both directions. We highlight a few themes that we regard as...