4/30/23, 8:53 AM Women Empowerment and Economic Development - American Economic Association

< Women Empowerment and Economic Development

Women Empowerment and Economic

Development
Esther Duflo

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC LITERATU RE

VOL . 50, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2012
(pp. 1051-79)

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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. (JEL I14, I24, I32,
I38, J13, J16, O15)

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DOI: 10.1257/jel.50.4.1051

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4/30/23, 8:53 AM Women Empowerment and Economic Development - American Economic Association

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JEL Classification
I14 Health and Inequality
I24 Education and Inequality
I32 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

I38 Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of

Welfare Programs

J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development;
Income Distribution; Migration

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