Women’s empowerment has been identified as a prerequisite for poverty reduction. In addition to driving overall … economic growth, women’s empowerment has been found to have beneficial effects on fertility rates, child health and education … outcomes, as well as community development. This thesis aims to explore various factors that foster women’s empowerment, as …

fertility pressures on women, which favored late female marriages already in the pre-industrial era. The resulting family and … household patterns placed women into a better position to struggle for more gender equality during the subsequent transitions …

the long run. Among the many plausible mechanisms through which inequality between men and women affects the aggregate … economy, the role of women for fertility decisions and human capital investments is particularly important. Yet, we believe …

. Our results show that social institutions that deprive women of their autonomy and bargaining power in the household, or …

The thesis attempts to evaluate three Indian development policies aimed at promoting women and historically … disadvantaged social groups. These policies are: job reservation for women in public workfare programs; women's political …