From Stagnation to Sustained Growth: The Role of Female Empowerment

This paper explores the role of gender equality over a long-run economic and demographic development path of industrialized countries. Our unified cliometric growth model of female empowerment suggests that changes in gender relations are a key ingredient of economic development. The economy evolves from a Malthusian regime--with slow technological progress, low income and low fertility--to a Modern Growth regime, with high living standards and low fertility. The rise in technological progress, together with improvements in gender equality, generates a positive feedback loop that engages the process of human capital accumulation (economic transition) and triggers the demographic transition.