Hostname: page-component-6dbcb7884d-xl9kw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T16:26:15.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does democracy cause gender equality?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2022

Thomas Barnebeck Andersen
Thomas Barnebeck Andersen*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Southern Denmark Campusvej 55, Odense, DK-5230 Denmark
*
Corresponding author. Email: barnebeck@sam.sdu.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Does democracy cause gender equality? To address this question, I use the unexpected Second Vatican Council (1962–65) as part of a shock-based identification strategy. The Second Vatican Council brought forward in time transitions to democracy that would have happened anyway and triggered transitions to democracy that would not otherwise have occurred. I use this plausibly exogenous variation in democracy to offer a causal estimate. According to my baseline specification, one standard deviation increase in democracy leads to three-fifths of a standard deviation increase in gender equality. I also peruse qualitative evidence to sketch a causal mechanism.

Keywords

Democracygender equalityinstrumental variables estimationshock-based identificationN4P16
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 2023 , pp. 210 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Millennium Economics Ltd.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D., Naidu, S., Restrepo, P. and Robinson, J. A. (2019), ‘Democracy Does Cause Growth’, Journal of Political Economy, 127(1): 47–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aidt, T. S. and Dallal, B. (2008), ‘Female Voting Power: The Contribution of Women's Suffrage to the Growth of Social Spending in Western Europe (1869–1960)’, Public Choice, 134(3–4): 391–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, A. C., Bagenholm, A. and Charron, N. (2020), ‘Are Women More Likely to Throw the Rascals out? The Mobilizing Effect of Social Service Spending on Female Voters’, Public Choice, 184(3–4): 235–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, T. B. and Jensen, P. S. (2019), ‘Preaching Democracy: The Second Vatican Council and the Third Wave’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 47(3): 525–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arat, Z. F. K. (2015), ‘Feminisms, Women's Rights, and the UN: Would Achieving Gender Equality Empower Women?’, American Political Science Review, 109(4): 674–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atanasov, V. A. and Black, B. S. (2016), ‘Shock-Based Causal Inference in Corporate Finance and Accounting Research’, Critical Finance Review, 5(2): 207–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayanpourtehrani, G. and Sylwester, K. (2013), ‘Democracy and Female Labor Force Participation: An Empirical Examination’, Social Indicators Research, 112(3): 749–762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beer, C. (2009), ‘Democracy and Gender equality’, Studies in Comparative International Development, 44(3): 212–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blankenship, J. and Kubicek, P. (2018), ‘Democratization and Gender Equality in Sub-Saharan Africa’, The Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 9(1): 27–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, C., Miller, M. and Rosato, S. (2013), ‘A Complete Data set of Political Regimes, 1800–2007’, Comparative Political Studies, 46(12): 1523–1554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canning, D. and Schultz, T. P. (2012), ‘The Economic Consequences of Reproductive Health and Family Planning’, The Lancet, 380(July): 165–171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chattopadhyay, R. and Duflo, E. (2004), ‘Women as Policy Makers: Evidence From A Randomized Policy Experiment in India’, Econometrica, 72(5): 1409–1443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chernozhukov, V. and Hansen, C. (2008), ‘The Reduced Form: A Simple Approach to Inference with Weak Instruments’, Economics Letters, 100(1): 68–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooray, A., Dutta, N. and Mallick, S. (2017), ‘The Right to be Free: Is media Freedom Good News for Women's Rights’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 13(2): 327–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, L. S. and Williamson, C. R. (2022), ‘Individualism and Women's Economic Rights’, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 198(June): 579–597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dilli, S., Rijpma, A. and Carmichael, S. G. (2015), ‘Achieving Gender Equality: Development Versus Historical Legacies’, CESifo Economic Studies, 61(1): 301–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunning, C. (2012), Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences: A Design-Based Approach, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fallon, K. M. (2008), Democracy and the Rise of Women's Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa, Baltimore, ML: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleet, M. and Smith, B. H. (1997), The Catholic Church and Democracy in Chile and Peru, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Grasso, K. L. and Hunt, R. P. (2005), ‘Dignitatis Humanae And The Catholic Human Rights Revolution’, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 3(3): 3–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, S. P. (1991), The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. F., Norris, P. and Welzel, C. (2002), ‘Gender Equality and Democracy’, Comparative Sociology, 1(3–4): 235–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaquette, J. S. (2001), ‘Women and Democracy: Regional Differences and Contrasting Views’, Journal of Democracy, 12(3): 111–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, N. A. (2006), Gender and Political Opportunities of Democratization in South Korea, New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, S.-K. and Kim, K. (2011), ‘Gender Mainstreaming and the Institutionalization of the Women's Movement in South Korea’, Women's Studies International Forum, 34(5): 390–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koukal, A. M. (2020), ‘Leader-Induced Cultural Change: How Vatican II Triggered Female Enfranchisement’, Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Lee, A.-R. and Chin, M. (2007), ‘The Women's Movement in South Korea’, Social Science Quarterly, 88(5): 1205–1226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemke, J. L. (2016), ‘Interjurisdictional Competition and the Married Women's Property's Act’, Public Choice, 166(3–4): 291–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lv, Z. and Yang, R. (2018), ‘Does Women's Participation in Politics Increase Female Labor Participation? Evidence From Panel Data Analysis’, Economics Letters, 170(September): 35–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madigan, P. (2018), ‘Women During and After Vatican II’, in Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., and Welle, J. (eds), Catholicism Opening to the World and Other Confessions, New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 79–96.Google Scholar
Mainwaring, S. (1986), The Catholic Church and Politics in Brazil, 1916–1985, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Maoz, Z. and Henderson, E. A. (2013), ‘The World Religion Dataset, 1945–2010: Logic, Estimates, and Trends’, International Interactions, 39(3): 265–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitra, A., Bang, J. T. and Biswas, A. (2015), ‘Media Freedom and Gender Equality: A Cross-National Instrumental Variable Quantile Analysis’, Applied Economics, 47(22): 2278–2292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, J. Z. (2019), The Tyranny of Metrics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, K. A. (1993), ‘Women and Development: The Case of South Korea’, Comparative Politics, 25(2): 127–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paxton, P., Hughes, M. M. and Green, J. L. (2006), ‘The International Women's Movement and Women's Political Representation, 1893–2003’, American Sociological Review, 71(6): 898–920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, S. G. (1984), Spanish Catholicism: An Historical Overview, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Pesch, O. H. (2014), The Second Vatican Council: Prehistory-Event-Results-Posthistory, Milwaukee, WI,: Marquette University Press.Google Scholar
Philpott, D. (2004), ‘Christianity and Democracy: The Catholic Wave’, Journal of Democracy, 15(2): 32–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philpott, D. (2007), ‘Explaining the Political Ambivalence of Religion’, American Political Science Review, 101(3): 505–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sigmund, P. E. (1987), ‘The Catholic Tradition and Modern Democracy’, The Review of Politics, 49(4): 530–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spolaore, E. and Wacziarg, R. (2013), ‘How Deep are the Roots of Economic Development?’, Journal of Economic Literature, 51(2): 325–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stroup, M. D. (2008), ‘Separating the Influence of Capitalism and Democracy on Women's Well-Being’, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 67(3-4): 560–572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundström, A., Paxton, P., Wang, Y.-t. and Lindberg, S. I. (2017), ‘Women's Political Empowerment: A new Global Index, 1900–2012’, World Development, 94(June): 321–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teorell, J. (2010), Determinants of Democratization: Explaining Regime Change in the World, 1972–2006, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, K., Chen, C. and Beardsley, K. (2019), ‘Conflict, Peace, and the Evolution of Women's Empowerment’, International Organization, 73(2): 255–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weigel, G. (2003), The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilde, M. J. (2004), ‘How Culture Mattered at Vatican II: Collegiality Trumps Authority in the Council's Social Movement Organizations’, American Sociological Review, 69(4): 576–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilde, M. J. (2007), Vatican II, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, A. S. and Davidson, J. D. (1996), ‘Catholic Conceptions of Faith: A Generational Analysis’, Sociology and Religion, 57(3): 273–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooldridge, J. M. (2013), Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach (5th edn edn), Boston, MA: Southwestern.Google Scholar
Yun-Shik, C. (1998), ‘The Progressive Christian Church and Democracy in South Korea’, Journal of Church and State, 40(2): 437–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar