Article

No Better Time Than Now

Future Uncertainty and Private Investment Under Dictatorship

Michael Albertus et Victor Gay

Résumé

This paper explores pathways that underlie the diffusion of women’s participation in the labor force across generations. I leverage a severe exogenous shock to the sex ratio, World War I in France, which generated an upward shift in female labor force participation after the war. This shock to female labor transmitted to subsequent generations until today. Three mechanisms of intergenerational transmission account for this result—vertical (from parents to daughters), through marriage (from mothers-in-law to daughters-in-law), and oblique (from internal migrants to non-migrants). Beyond behavior, the war also altered beliefs toward the role of women in the labor force permanently

Mots-clés

Authoritarianism; Political elites; Uncertainty; Investment; Comparative politics; Game theory;

Codes JEL

  • D8: Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
  • F21: International Investment • Long-Term Capital Movements
  • P16: Political Economy

Référence

Michael Albertus et Victor Gay, « No Better Time Than Now: Future Uncertainty and Private Investment Under Dictatorship », Economics & Politics, vol. 31, n° 1, mars 2019, p. 71–96.

Publié dans

Economics & Politics, vol. 31, n° 1, mars 2019, p. 71–96