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 perception of women's statutory place within organizations has been influenced by gender bias, which has led to discrimination. Lowering barriers related to gender inequality and introducing constructive changes takes a surprisingly long time. This procrastination can, to some extent, be...

Relative to developed countries, there are far fewer women than men in parts of the developing world. Estimates suggest that more than 200 million women are demographically 'missing' worldwide. To explain the global 'missing women' phenomenon, research has mainly focused on excess female...

In this article, we survey the theoretical literature investigating the role of gender inequality in economic development. The vast majority of theories reviewed suggest that gender inequality is a barrier to development, particularly over the long run. Among the many plausible mechanisms...

This paper empirically investigates whether globalization can improve women's rights. Using panel data from 150 countries over the 1981-2008 period, I find that social globalization positively affects women's economic and social rights. When controlling for social globalization however, economic...

I examine how one central aspect of the family environment - sibling sex composition - affects women's gender conformity. Using Danish administrative data, I causally estimate the effect of having a second-born brother relative to a sister for first-born women. I show that women with a brother...

We build on recent studies on daughter-to-father influence to explore how male founders’ fatherhood of daughters impacts female representation in their ventures. We find that, conditional on the total number of children, fathering an additional daughter vs. a son is associated with a 4% (11%)...

This study examines the historical origins of son preference. I test a hypothesis that son preference emerges from humanity’s adoption of intensive agriculture for subsistence. This increases the incentive to adopt patrilocal residence norms after marriage, and for sons to care for their...

The paper analyzes the impact of an experimental maternal and child health and family-planning program that was implemented in Matlab, Bangladesh in 1977. Village data from 1974, 1982 and 1996 suggest that program villages experienced extra declines in fertility of about 17%. Household data from...