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Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 50 No. 4 2012

Women Empowerment and Economic Development

Esther Duflo

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

open access

Abstract

Women 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 interrelationships 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.

DOI
10.1257/jel.50.4.1051
Volume
50
Issue
4
Pages
1051-1079
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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