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 economic
and demographic development path of industrialized countries. It accounts for
changes in fertility, technology and income per capita in the transition from
stagnation to sustained growth. Our unified cliometric growth model of female
empowerment suggests that changes in gender relations, triggered by
endogenous skill-biased technological progress, induce women to invest in
skilled education and begin a process of human capital accumulation. At the
same time, more time spent by women in education increases the opportunity
cost of having children and reduces fertility. This positive feedback loop
generates both a demographic and an economic transition.