A Cliometric Model of Unified Growth: Family Organization and Economic Growth in the Long Run of History

This chapter explores the role of gender equality on the long-run economicand demographic development path of industrialized countries. It accounts forchanges in fertility, technology and income per capita in the transition fromstagnation to sustained growth. Our unified cliometric growth model of femaleempowerment suggests that changes in gender relations, triggered byendogenous skill-biased technological progress, induce women to invest inskilled education and begin a process of human capital accumulation. At thesame time, more time spent by women in education increases the opportunitycost of having children and reduces fertility. This positive feedback loopgenerates both a demographic and an economic transition