Agency, Gender and Economic Development in the World Economy 1850-2000
Subtitle: Testing the Sen Hypothesis
By: Jan Luiten van Zanden
Contributors: Rijpma, Auke; Kok, Jan
Edition: First edition.
Series: Gender and Well-Being
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9781315212418
Subjects: Economics; Sociological aspects; Sociology; History; Sociologie; Histoire; SOCIAL SCIENCE; Children's Studies
Description: "How has 'agency' - or the ability to define and act upon one's goals - contributed to global long-term economic development during the last 150 years? This book asserts that autonomous decision making, and female agency in particular, increases the potential of a society to generate economic growth and improve its institutions. Inspired by Amartya Sen's capabilities approach and looking at this in comparison to contemporary economic theory, the collection of chapters tackles the issue of agency from the micro level of household and family formation and asks how this applies to gender at regional and state level. It brings to the fore new empirical data from across the globe to test the links between family systems, female agency, human capital formation, political institutions and economic development and puts these into broader historical context. It will appeal to scholars researching social policy, gender studies, economic history, development studies and philosophy, as well anyone with interests in the long-term societal development of the world economy and issues of global inequality."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Chapter 1 Introduction  -- Jan Luiten van Zanden; title: chapter 2 Women's agency in historical family systems  -- Jan Kok; title: chapter 3 Measuring agency  -- Sarah Carmichael; title: chapter 4 Quantity versus quality: household structure, number of siblings, and educational attainment in the long nineteenth century  -- Sarah Carmichael; title: chapter 5 The best thermometer: a long run perspective on Indian gender inequality in British ruled states  -- Lotte van der Vleuten; title: chapter 6 The deep causes of economic development: family systems and female agency  -- Selin Dilli; title: chapter 7 Conclusions -- Sarah Carmichael.