Working Paper: NBER ID: w17702
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: Women's Empowerment; Economic Development; Gender Equality; Poverty Reduction
JEL Codes: D10; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| economic development (O29) | reduces poverty (I32) |
| reduces poverty (I32) | improves women's conditions (J16) |
| economic development (O29) | improves women's conditions (J16) |
| economic development (O29) | reduces gender inequality (F63) |
| reduces gender inequality (F63) | improves women's conditions (J16) |
| empowering women (F63) | accelerates development (O11) |
| improves women's rights (J16) | better economic outcomes (P17) |