Globalization and culture shaping the gender gap: A comparative analysis of urban Latin America and East Asia (1970 - 2000)

In this paper we present: 1. The available data on comparative gender inequality at the macroeconomic level and 2. Gender inequality measures at the microeconomic and case study level. We see that market openness has a significant effect on the narrowing of the human capital gender gap. Globalization and market openness stand as factors that improve both the human capital endowments of women and their economic position. But we also see that the effects of culture and religious beliefs are very different. While Catholicism has a statistically significant influence on the improvement of the human capital gender gap, Muslim and Buddhist religious beliefs have the opposite effect and increase human capital gender differences. In the second global era, some Catholic Latin American countries benefited from market openness in terms of the human capital and income gender gap, whereas we find the opposite impact in Buddhist and Muslim countries like China and South Korea where women’s economic position has worsened in terms of human capital and wage inequality.Wage inequality, gender gap, market openness, human capital

Children's work in Spanish textiles during the 19th and 20th Centuries

This essay deals with the reasons explaining children’s work in 19th century textile factories and their removal during the first part of the 20th century. The inadequacy of the structure of incomes and expenditures of the household and the very low economic incentives to educate children can explain why children were in the factories and not in the school. Moreover, the marginal economic contribution to the economy of the household of a child was the same as that of his mother. This normally implied that women and children were perfect substitutes. When the family had a child at working age this allowed to replace the paid work input of the mother. With the beginnings of the 20th century a set of changes leading to the increase of women’s productivity and hourly real wages, switched the situation and involved the new incorporation of women into paid work and the investment in children’s human capital.Children's work, Women's Work, Household Budgets, Education

Wage structures and family economies in the Catalan textile industry in an age of nascent capitalism

This paper deals with changes in managerial practices in Catalonia in an age of nascent capitalism (1830-1925) and adaptive family strategies in order to face the absence of state welfare. During the 19 t h Century and in the absence of recorded labor contracts, human resources of the firm were organized by means of implicit contracts and informal labor markets. With the advent of scientific organization of labor, wage per hour worked began to be recorded. This is why in the 1920s the perfect competition model applies to our case. On the other hand, in the same period, and in the absence of state welfare, ideas stemming from cooperative game theory apply to the pattern of household income formation. Kin related networks were used to improve the living standards of the household. In this particular direction we also show that there was a demonstration effect by means of which migrant’s living standards were higher than those of natives.Labour market, contracts, family strategies, state welfare

The rise and decline of children's labour participation levels during the early stages of industrialisation. Catalonia (1850-1925)

This article aims to analyse the reasons for the intensive use of child labour in the 19th century and its subsequent decline in the first third of the 20th century in the context of an economy with a highly flexible labour supply like that of Catalonia. During the second half of the 19th century,factors relating to family economies, such as numerous families and low wages for adults, along with the technologies of the time that required manual labour resources, would appear to explain the intensive use of child labour to the detriment of schooling. The technological changes that occurred during the first third of the 20th century, the demographic transition and adult wage increase (for both men and women) explain the schooling of children up to the age of 15 and the consequent practical abolition of child labour in that new era of economic modernisation.Child labour market, human capital, family strategies

Labour market in the Catalan cotton textile sector: Employment and fertility (1850-1913)

This paper deals whit the dynamics of the Catalan textile labour market (the Spanish region that concentrated most of the industrial and factory activity during the 19 Century) and offers hypotheses and results on the impact it had on living standards and fertility levels. We observe the formation of an uneven labour market in which male supply for labour (excluding women and children) grew much faster than the demand. We stress the fact that labour supply is very dependant on institutional factors liked to the transmition of household property between generations. Instead the slow path of growth of adult males demand for labour is witnessing the limits of this industry to expand and to compete in international markets. The strategy of working class families to adapt to scarce opportunities of employment we document here is the diminution of legitimate fertility levels. Fertility control is the direct instrument we think workers have to control their number in a situation that was likely to create labour surpluses in the short and mid run.Labour market, female employment, children employment, fertility

The impact of women's educational and economic resources on fertility. Spanish birth cohorts 1901-1950

In this chapter we portray the effects of female education and professional achievement on fertility decline in Spain over the period 1920-1980 (birth cohorts of 1900-1950). A longitudinal econometric approach is used to test the hypothesis that the effects of women’s education in the revaluing of their time had a very significant influence on fertility decline. Although in the historical context presented here improvements in schooling were on a modest scale, they were continuous (with the interruption of the Civil War) and had a significant impact in shaping a model of low fertility in Spain. We also stress the relevance of this result in a context such as the Spanish for which liberal values were absent, fertility control practices were forbidden, and labour force participation of women was politically and socially constrained.Fertility decline, human capital, intergenerational transfers of knowledge

World population growth and fertility patterns, 1960-2000. A simple model explaining the evolution of world's fertility during the second half of the 20th Century

In this paper we attempt to describe the general reasons behind the world population explosion in the 20th century. The size of the population at the end of the century in question, deemed excessive by some, was a consequence of a dramatic improvement in life expectancies, attributable, in turn, to scientific innovation, the circulation of information and economic growth. Nevertheless, fertility is a variable that plays a crucial role in differences in demographic growth. We identify infant mortality, female education levels and racial identity as important exogenous variables affecting fertility. It is estimated that in poor countries one additional year’ of primary schooling for women leads to 0.614 child less per couple on average (worldwide). While it may be possible to identify a global tendency towards convergence in demographic trends, particular attention should be paid to the case of Africa, not only due to its different demographic patterns, but also because much of the continent's population has yet to experience improvement in quality of life generally enjoyed across the rest of the planet.Fertility, human capital, infant mortality, race, population growth

La teoría del capital humano, una contrastación empírica. La España industrial en el siglo XIX

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