Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP8734
Authors: Esther Duflo
Abstract: Women?s empowerment and economic development are closely related: in one direction, development alone can play a major role in driving down inequality between men and women; in the other direction, empowering women may benefit development. Does this imply that pushing just one of these two levers would set a virtuous circle in motion? This paper reviews the literature on both sides of the empowerment-development nexus, and argues that the inter-relationships are probably too weak to be self-sustaining, and that continuous policy commitment to equality for its own sake may be needed to bring about equality between men and women.
Keywords: gender equality; women's empowerment
JEL Codes: D1; O12; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| economic development (O29) | improved welfare for women (I39) |
| women's empowerment (J16) | economic development (O29) |
| continuous policy commitment (D15) | gender equality (J16) |
| economic development (O29) | gender equality (J16) |
| women's empowerment (J16) | gender equality (J16) |