The plough, gender roles, and corruption

Authors

Gautam Hazarika, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-26-2018

Abstract

Cross-country empirical studies of corruption using ordinary least squares commonly find that nations in which women play a greater role in economic and public life suffer less corruption. This has been a controversial finding since measures of women’s participation in the economy and politics are likely endogenous. This study uses an aspect of national ancestral geography as a novel instrumental variable in the estimation of the true causal effects of gender upon corruption. It thereby finds that ordinary least squares estimates of the effects of gender upon corruption are biased. This conclusion is upheld in time-series fixed-effects estimation.

Comments

Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10101-018-0202-7

Recommended Citation

Hazarika, G., 2018. The plough, gender roles, and corruption. Economics of Governance, 19, pp.141-163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10101-018-0202-7

First Page

141

Last Page

163

Publication Title

Economics of Governance

DOI

10.1007/s10101-018-0202-7