Using firm level data from eight Sub-Saharan Africa countries we examine credit constraint differentials between male and female manufacturing entrepreneurs. Enterprises owned by female entrepreneurs are less likely to be credit constrained compared to their male counterparts. The magnitude of this credit constraint gap varies with constraint and ownership definitions but the direction of the g...

The present study contributes to the literature on the economics of discrimination by considering some consequences of sexual orientation discrimination. Specifically, we analyse LGB people's decision to "come out" within an identity utility theoretical framework, and estimate the model on a representative sample of the EU population. We aim to investigate the factors that systematically affect...

The Impact of Incumbency on Turnout: Evidence from Italian Municipalities We analyze how having an incumbent among candidates affects electoral turnout. We use a rich data set providing information on the electoral results of Italian municipal elections over the period 1993-2011. Endogeneity issues are handled through an instrumental variable approach using the mayor term-limit as an instrument...

This research focuses on the role played by cultural norms in the long run persistence of gender inequalities. Cultural norms about gender roles are considered to be endogenous and can generate gender inequality and low development traps. Indeed, when the gender gap is internalized, it leads to inegalitarian views about gender roles. Due to these inegalitarian beliefs, boys receive more educati...

Measuring Ethnic Identity and Its Impact on Economic Behavior The paper advocates for a new measure of the ethnic identity of migrants, models its determinants and explores its explanatory power for various types of their economic performance. The ethnosizer, a measure of the intensity of a person's ethnic identity, is constructed from information on the following elements: language, culture, s...

Using a controlled experiment, we examine the role of nurture in explaining the stylized fact that women shy away from competition. Our subjects (students just under 15 years of age) attend publicly-funded single-sex and coeducational schools. We …nd robust di¤erences between the competitive choices of girls from single-sex and coed schools. Moreover, girls from single-sex schools behave more l...

Migration, Ethnicity and Economic Integration This chapter deals with the economic and ethnic diversity caused by international labor migration, and their economic integration possibilities. It brings together three strands of literature dealing with the neoclassical economic assimilation, ethnic identities and attitudes towards immigrants and the natives, and provides an analysis in understand...

Sexual Orientation and Household Savings: Do Homosexual Couples Save More? We analyze how sexual orientation is related to household savings using 2000 US Census data, and find that gay and lesbian couples own significantly more retirement income than heterosexuals, while cohabiting heterosexuals save more than their married counterparts. In a household savings model, we interpret this homosexu...

We present international evidence on the marriage market implications of cohort size growth, and set out a theoretical model of how marriage markets adjust to imbalances. Since men marry younger women, secular growth in cohort size in the second phase of the demographic transition worsens the position of women. This e¤ect has been substantial in many Asian countries earlier, and continues to be...

Parental Leave – A Policy Evaluation of the Swedish “Daddy-Month” Reform Many countries are trying to incentivize fathers to increase their share in parental leave and in household work to improve female labor market opportunities. Our unique data set stems from a natural experiment in Sweden. The data comprises all children born before (control group) and after the reform (treatment group) in ...