2024/10/25 by Claudia R. Williamson · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Corruption and Economic Development #Income, Poverty, and Inequality #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/coep.12675
openalex publication_date 2024/10/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Using a panel dataset from 1970 to 2019, this paper theorizes and empirically demonstrates that countries with higher levels of economic freedom have fewer legal differences between men's and women's economics rights. Specifically, economic freedom promotes equal legal treatment of women to work, get paid, and be entrepreneurs. This finding is robust to controlling for income, political institutional quality, and country and period fixed effects. Furthermore, economic freedom's impact is amplified in democratic countries. The results challenge the prevailing notion that capitalism is detrimental to women, instead providing evidence that economically free countries favor less legal discrimination against women.