Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13348
Authors: Jörg Baten; Alexandra de Pleijt
Abstract: Many countries did not accumulate sufficient human capital to be successful, because they did not make use of the potential of the female half of their population. Other countries did the opposite and became "superstars" and pioneers in long-term economic development. This view is supported by studying female autonomy and numeracy indicators of 27 countries and 268 regions in Europe between 1500 and 1900. We approach endogeneity issues by exploiting exogenous variation in gender-biased agricultural specialization.
Keywords: human capital formation; female autonomy; early modern growth
JEL Codes: N13; N33; O40
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| lower female age at marriage (FAM) (J12) | increased numeracy (C12) |
| higher female autonomy (J16) | increased numeracy (C12) |
| female autonomy (J16) | human capital development (J24) |
| female autonomy (J16) | dairy farming contributions (Q19) |
| female autonomy (J16) | agricultural practices (Q15) |
| female autonomy (J16) | numeracy development in Europe (O52) |