Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15922
Authors: Nuno Palma; Jaime Brown Reis; Lisbeth Rodrigues
Abstract: Gender discrimination has been pointed out as a determining factor behind the long-run divergence in incomes of Southern vis-a-vis Northwestern Europe. In this paper, we show that there is no evidence that women in Portugal were historically more discriminated against than those of other parts of Western Europe, including England and the Netherlands. We rely on a new dataset of thousands of observations from archival sources which cover six centuries, and we complement it with a qualitative discussion of comparative social norms. Compared with Northwestern Europe, women in Portugal faced similar gender wage gaps, married at similar ages, and did not face more restrictions to labor market participation. Consequently, other factors must be responsible for the Little Divergence of Western European incomes
Keywords: historical gender discrimination; gender wage gap; culture; social norms; comparative development; the little divergence; European marriage pattern
JEL Codes: N13; N33; J16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| gender discrimination in Portugal (J16) | gender discrimination in other Western European countries (J79) |
| gender wage gap for unskilled workers in Portugal (J79) | differences in physical strength required for certain jobs (J79) |
| social norms regarding gender roles in Portugal (J16) | social norms regarding gender roles in Northwestern Europe (N93) |
| labor market participation rates in Portugal (J49) | labor market participation rates in Northwestern Europe (J49) |
| little divergence in incomes across Western Europe (D31) | gender discrimination (J16) |
| observable gender wage gap differences (J31) | compensating differentials and different productivity levels (J31) |