The European Marriage Pattern

Question 1

Girl Power - EMP

Answer 1

3 factors that caused the EMP

1. Consensus vs Parental authority
   - Consent equalised power in the household. Inc. bargaining power of women. Yet, marriage patterns differed across Europe: can’t generalise it
2. Property right transfer
   - Differing legal frameworks existed between the North vs South of Europe.
   - North: Wives could contribute to the conjugal marital fund to increase her inheritance by working.
   - South: Wives had a fixed fund
3. Access to the labour market
   - Allowed women with no inheritance to accumulate capital (savings) to choose her own spouse.
   - Black death -> labour scarcity -> Inc wages -> Inc female labour force participation -> autonomy
   - Yet relied on the institutional frameworks of marital fund

Question 2

Does the EMP explain economic growth?

Answer 2

4,705 observations in 39 European countries

There is no evidence that the EMP improved economic performance by empowering women, increasing human capital investment, adjusting population to economic trends, or sustaining beneficial cultural norms.

H1: Inc womens position -> inc. economic growth.
- Authors cannot empirically substantiate this due to reverse causality.
- Where the EMP was prevalent (England & Netherlands), female-male wage ratio stagnated at 0.6-0.7 and was as low as 0.4 in Germany
- Inhibition of women’s position perpetuated by guilds

H2: EMP->Human capital investment-> Growth
- European system of developing a nuclear family meant that parents wouldn’t invest in having kids since no future pay-offs
- Altruism as an investment from parents -> kids depends on future opportunities of daughters: severely limited due to institutional structure (guilds)

Deeper issues: Reverse causality & case studies show countries that had a stronger version of EMP had slower growth.

Question 3

Lecture Notes

Answer 3

Non-family support systems: Formation of a new households after marriage led to capital markets development to deal with supporting people of old age.

Labour market: shift from grazing to ploughing & role of spinning/weaving increased labour market opportunities for women
- Could relate to China gender & demography papers