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How Education Empowers Women in Developing Countries

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  • Le Kien

    (Faculty of Economics and Public Management, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam)

  • Nguyen My

    (Faculty of Economics and Public Management, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impacts of education on women’s relational empowerment, within a context of 70 developing countries across the world. Exploiting the variation in educational attainment between biological sisters, we find that education is positively associated with women’s intra-household decision making authority in both financial and non-financial domains. Moreover, education reduces relational friction, especially women’s exposure to psychological abuse. Our mechanism analyses provide suggestive evidence that these improvements could be attributed to increased access to information, assortative matching, and better labor market outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Le Kien & Nguyen My, 2021. "How Education Empowers Women in Developing Countries," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 511-536, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:21:y:2021:i:2:p:511-536:n:5
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2020-0046
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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    education; women’s empowerment; developing countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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