In October 2023, Claudia Goldin, professor at Harvard University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, in recognition of her pioneering contributions to economics, particularly for her in-depth analysis of women's place in the labor market. Goldin explored the evolution of women's income and participation in the labor market over the long term, highlighting the causes of these changes and the reasons for the persistence of gender inequalities. The first woman to hold tenure in Harvard's Department of Economics, and now the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics alone, her career illustrates the breaking down of academic barriers and the broadening of horizons. Her research has played a key role in the recognition and valorization of the role of women in economics, motivating a new generation of researchers to integrate gender dynamics and long-term perspectives into their work.

En octobre 2023, Claudia Goldin, professeure à l’Université de Harvard, a été récompensée par l’attribution du Prix Nobel de Sciences Économiques, en reconnaissance de ses contributions pionnières à l’économie, notamment pour son analyse approfondie de la place des femmes sur le marché du travail. Goldin a, en effet, exploré l’évolution du revenu et la participation des femmes au marché du travail dans la longue durée, mettant en évidence les causes de ces changements et les raisons de la persistance des inégalités entre hommes et femmes. Première femme titularisée au Département d’économie de Harvard et désormais première femme à remporter seule le Prix Nobel d’économie, son parcours illustre le franchissement des barrières académiques et l’élargissement des horizons. Ses recherches ont joué un rôle clé dans la reconnaissance et la valorisation du rôle des femmes dans le domaine économique, motivant ainsi une nouvelle génération de chercheurs à intégrer les dynamiques de genre et les perspectives à long terme dans leurs travaux.

This paper investigates the evolution of gender equality in Sweden during a phase characterized by industrialization, urbanization, and demographic transition. To this end, we build a database with quantitative indicators to construct a spatial Historical Gender Gap Index. We find that after a period of stagnation, Sweden made significant progress in closing the gender gap from the 1940s onward to reach the high level of gender equality that it is now famous for. The empirical exploration of the relationship between gender equality and economic development reveals that regions displaying higher gender equality performed economically better than less gender-equal regions.

L'objectif de cet article est d'étudier les liens entre le financement de l'instruction primaire, la scolarisation et la croissance économique en France au XIXe siècle. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons des informations sur les financements alloués par l'État, les départements, les communes, et les ménages sur la période 1820-1913. Pour mener notre analyse, nous procédons en deux étapes. Tout d'abord, nous analysons l'évolution des différents types de financement dans le temps et nous nous appuyons sur la méthodologie des points atypiques pour détecter l'existence d'éventuelles ruptures dans les séries. Ensuite, nous étudions les relations de causalité entre les différents types de financement, le nombre d'enfants scolarisés dans l'instruction primaire et le produit intérieur brut. Au cours de la période étudiée, nos résultats confirment que la scolarisation de masse est d'abord portée par la volonté politique avant de s'expliquer par l'accroissement des richesses disponibles dans l'économie.

Why do certain countries display high gender equalities while others display low gender equalities? To what extent does gender equality foster economic growth and development? The past decade has witnessed a boom and increasing literature about the role played by women and gender in long-run economic development. The increasing awareness of economics and economic history have contributed to improve our understanding of the crucial role played by women in the process of economic development. This paper reviews the literature on the topic and opens the discussion on current challenges and avenues for future research.

The objective of this article is to study the links between the financing of primary education, schooling and economic growth in France in the nineteenth century. To do so, we use information on the financing allocated by the State, the departments, the municipalities, and households over the period 1820–1913. Our analysis is in two stages. First, we analyse the evolution of these different types of financing over time, relying on the outliers’ methodology to detect the existence of possible breaks in the series. Next, we study the causal relationships between the different types of financing, the number of children enrolled in primary education and the gross domestic product. Over the period studied, our results confirm that mass schooling is primarily driven by political will, before being explained by the increase in wealth available in the economy.

Why did France experience the demographic transition first? This question remains one of the greatest puzzles of economics, demography, and economic history. The French pattern is hard to reconcile with elucidations of the process as found in other countries. The present analysis goes back to the roots of the process and offers novel ways of explaining why people started to control their fertility in France and how they did so. In this paper, I track the evolution of marriage patterns to a point before the premises of the demographic transition. I identify two distinct phases. Next, I rely on exploratory methods to classify French counties based on their discriminatory features. Five profiles emerge. I discuss these profiles through the lens of the French Revolution, one of the greatest events that ever occurred in French history, which irretrievably altered its society. In particular, the results show that the fertility transition was not as linear, but more complex than previous research had argued. They show the importance of accounting for cultural factors and for individuals' predispositions to adapt more or less quickly to societal changes. Yet cultural factors are not all. They can help to explain the timing of the transition and the choice of methods used to control fertility, but modernity and gender equality are also needed to describe the mechanisms in play behind the process.

Abstract Knowledge of the long relationship between gender equality and economic growth is hampered by the lack of information and resources on the various dimensions of gender equality. This paper is a first attempt to assess the size of the gender gap and investigate its relationship with economic growth from a historical perspective. Exploiting a unique census-based dataset of 86 French counties in the mid-nineteenth century, I construct a historical gender gap index measuring the size of the gap between men and women in three critical areas: economic opportunities, educational attainment, and health. A county comparison allows me to identify the strengths and weaknesses of French counties in closing the gender gap. I find that France can be divided into two main areas, the North and the South. In particular, the Northern counties that have done most to narrow the gap display better economic performance. Boys' and girls' education and family structures appear to be crucial determinants of gender equality. Gender equality is positively and significantly associated with economic performance. Accounting for the multi-dimensions of gender equality is crucial for economic development.

Recent theoretical developments in growth models, triggered particularly by unified theories of growth, suggest that the child quantity-quality trade-off is a defining element in our explanation of a transition from Malthusian stagnation to a sustained growth path. This paper presents a model and derives a testable empirical framework to investigate the role of gender in the trade-off between education and fertility for 86 French counties during the 19th century. Endogeneity-mitigated mean-and median-based regressions offer robust empirical predictions for gender-empowered quantity-quality trade-off. In particular, we find the existence of a significant and negative association between education and fertility. Further, while gauging the differential effects of schooling on fertility, we find that the short-run differences between male and female are small whilst the long-run effects are large. From policy perspective, our results imply that for stable long-run growth it matters not just that parents educate their children, but specifically that they choose to educate girls. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evidence of conventional human capital indicators (e.g. literacy, educational attainment, years of schooling) by marital status is rare or inexistent for the period prior to the 20th century. An indicator of human capital frequently used for the pre-1900 period is the age heaping. We employ this method to chart and analyze the heterogeneity and gender-specific differences of cognitive abilities (numeracy) across France in the mid-19th century by marital status. We find that married women heap significantly less than unmarried women, while single men heap less than married men. We explore the reliability of four hypotheses to explain those differences. We find that married and non-married women's data are prone to bias and must be used carefully when accounting for basic numeracy skills. Yet, we find a robust correlation between literacy and numeracy. Our findings suggest that married women's numeracy skills are more closely linked with indicators of human capital, e.g. enrollment rates, than non-married women's and men's numeracy skills.

Evidence of conventional human capital indicators (e.g. literacy, educational attainment, years of schooling) by marital status is rare or inexistent for the period prior to the 20th century. An indicator of human capital frequently used for the pre-1900 period is the age heaping. We employ this method to chart and analyze the heterogeneity and gender-specific differences of cognitive abilities (numeracy) across France in the mid- 19th century by marital status. We find that married women heap significantly less than unmarried women, while single men heap less than married men. We explore the reliability of four hypotheses to explain those differences. We find that married and non-married women's data are prone to bias and must be used carefully when accounting for basic numeracy skills. Yet, we find a robust correlation between literacy and numeracy. Our findings suggest that married women's numeracy skills are more closely linked with indicators of human capital, e.g. enrollment rates, than non-married women's and men's numeracy skills.

L’objectif de cet article est d’etudier dans quelle mesure la centralisation du systeme educatif francais a profite a l’education de masse. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons des informations sur les financements lies a l’education alloues par l’Etat, les departements, les regions, les menages et les entreprises de 1820 a 1913. Pour mener notre analyse, nous procedons en deux etapes. Tout d’abord, nous etudions l’evolution des differents types de financement dans le temps et nous nous appuyons sur la methodologie des points atypiques pour detecter l’existence d’eventuelles ruptures dans les series. Ensuite, nous analysons la causalite entre les differents types de financement et les taux de scolarisation des garcons et des filles. Les resultats originaux que nous obtenons revelent que la scolarisation de masse en France au XIXeme siecle, a ete davantage rendue possible par la volonte politique que par necessite economique.

– Our knowledge of the long-run evolution of gender equality is limited. We currently lack quantitative indicators capable of capturing the variations on and changes in the individual dimensions of gender equality. This paper seeks to assess the long-run evolution of gender roles and relations in Sweden. To this end, we build a database with quantitative indicators of gender equality. These indicators allow us to construct a Historical Gender Gap Index (HGGI), which is used to describe and analyze the evolution of gender equality in Sweden during a phase characterized by industrialization, urbanization and demographic transition. We find that after a period of stagnation, Sweden from the 1940s onwards made significant progress in closing the gender gap to reach the high level of gender equality that it is now famous for. All counties have made substantial improvements in closing the gap over time, although some counties have been quicker than others. Our investigation reveals the existence of a convergence pattern between counties.

This chapter explores the role of gender equality on the long-run economic and demographic development path of industrialized countries. It accounts for changes in fertility, technology and income per capita in the transition from stagnation to sustained growth. Our unified cliometric growth model of female empowerment suggests that changes in gender relations, triggered by endogenous skill-biased technological progress, induce women to invest in skilled education and begin a process of human capital accumulation. At the same time, more time spent by women in education increases the opportunity cost of having children and reduces fertility. This positive feedback loop generates both a demographic and an economic transition.

The purpose of this chapter is to describe and explain regional patterns of economic development as revealed by data on about 70 variables for France in the middle of the nineteenth century. The development process occurred at different speed across space. The process turned out to be specific and varied across French counties. The characteristics can be classified in a three-part taxonomy based on counties' specificities: (1) productive structure, (2) urban-uneducated versus rural-educated structure, and (3) marital structure. Most prosperous counties are characterized by a dynamic industry, gender equality, high education, fertility control within marriage, and low fertility rates. Backward counties are heavily dependent on agriculture and present gender inequalities, a poorly educated population, control of nuptiality, and high fertility rates. The findings resulting from this analysis have implications for our understanding on the origins and consequences of the development process (output growth, human capital accumulation, fertility transition). It contributes to (1) explain the trajectories followed by the French regions, (2) to disentangle the reasons behind the emergence of strengths or the persistence of weaknesses, and (3) to explain the variations in the timing and pace to reaching sustained economic growth.

We analyze how much a rational-choice model can explain the temporal and spatial variation in fertility and school enrollment in France during the 19th century. The originality of our approach is in our reliance on a structural estimation technique that exploits the restrictions implied by the first-order conditions to identify the deep parameters. Another new dimension is our use of gendered education data, allowing us to have a richer theory that includes mothers, fathers, boys and girls. Results indicate that the rational-choice model explains 38 percent of the variation of fertility over time and across counties, as well as 71 percent and 83 percent of school enrollment of boys and girls, respectively. The analysis of the residuals (unexplained by the economic model) indicates that additional insights might be gained by considering cross-county differences in family structure and cultural barriers.