Global trends in intra-household gender inequality

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Year: 2021
Volume: 189
Issue: C
Pages: 515-546

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We present trends in intra-household gender inequality for forty five different countries across a four decade period (1973–2016), using global micro-data from 2.85 million households. Intra-household gender inequality has declined by 20% in the four decades that we study. However, current levels are still significant so that any neglect of intra-household gender inequality results in a substantial underestimation of overall earnings inequality. For a sub-sample of countries, we show that the relationship between intra-household gender inequality and household economic status is non-monotonic – that we refer to as the “micro-GKC” (micro Gender Kuznets Curve) relationship. We also develop an empirical framework to measure the aggregate welfare loss from intra-household gender inequality. For a range of plausible inequality aversion assumptions, we report a median welfare loss of over 15% of aggregate earnings.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeborg:v:189:y:2021:i:c:p:515-546
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29