The Impact of Property Rights Protections for Women on Economic Growth

Institutions that protect property rights have been identified by scholars such as Daron Acemoglu as having a significant role in the economic development of nations. The economic literature on development, however, does not focus on the effects that changes in legislation geared towards equalizing property rights protections for women may have on GDP growth rates. In order to investigate this potential relationship, I construct a panel study of women’s property rights protection laws for 100 economies across 50 years. I run various OLS regressions in order to attempt to measure any effects on GDP growth that may result from legislative changes. Although most of my models failed to provide conclusive and significant results, they leave open the possibility for future economic research that can identify clearer channels of effects