This article examines the relationship between women's economic and social empowerment in the context of extreme poverty. It is based on the findings of primary fieldwork on the char islands of north-west Bangladesh, investigating the processes resulting from the implementation of the Chars...

Despite increasing average real family incomes in Costa Rica in the late 1990s and early 2000s, poverty rates did not fall. In this paper, we argue that during this period economic growth in Costa Rica did not translate into reduced poverty because of changes in family structure and in the labor...

Female labor force participation increased worldwide between 1990 and 2015. In India, it decreased 22% from a low rate of 37%. Rural married women drove the decrease, which began right after the implementation of a policy guaranteeing employment for rural households. I document the following....

I investigate the intra-household labor and resource allocation consequences of an employment guarantee targeting rural households in India. The guarantee insures household earnings, replacing women as added workers and shutting down a motive for saving. Despite sizable program-job take-up, the...

We find a strong association between family status and labor market outcomes for recent cohorts of West German men in the German Socio-Economic Panel. Living with a partner and living with a child both have substantial positive effects on earnings and work hours. These effects persist in fixed...

Women's ability to conduct independent households is a useful indicator of their economic position. This article investigates female headship in Bohemia (the Czech Republic) under strong feudal and communal institutions. Bohemian female headship was extremely low by Western European standards,...

Dominant development policy approaches recommend women’s employment on the grounds that it facilitates their empowerment, which in turn is believed to be instrumental in enhancing women’s well-being. However, empirical work on the relationship between women’s employment status and their...

Current perceptions on general issues arise as a result of both logic and rhetoric, with logic focusing on proof and rhetoric on persuasion. Arguably, rhetoric plays the larger part. Traditionally, rhetoric related to individual disputes, or 'micro' issues. Modern analyses have focused on...

Work and family have become either/or propositions for a growing segment of young professionals in business, law, and medicine. A well documented opt-out revolution is underway, in which women professionals are leaving the workplace in droves. Less appreciated is the converse phenomenon: huge...

The extensive research on the impact of educational attainment on fertility behavior has been expanded by a new dimension. According to these recent findings, not only the level but also the field of education has to be taken into account. The field of education determines a great deal about...