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K. Prettner, H. Strulik:
"Gender Equality and the Escape from Poverty";
Report for cege Discussion Paper, Dep. of Economics, University of Göttingen; Report No. 216, 2014; 25 pages.

We set up a unified growth model with gender-specific differences in tastes for
consumption, fertility, education of daughters and sons, and consider the intra-household
bargaining power of spouses. In line with the empirical regularity for less developed countries,
we assume that mothers desire to have no more children than fathers and to invest
no less in education per child. We then show that female empowerment has the potential
to promote the transition from a state of high fertility, low education, and sluggish economic
growth towards a state of low fertility, high education, and fast economic growth if
the child quantity-quality preferences of spouses differ substantially. In this case targeted
policies to empower women have the potential to constitute a successful development strategy.
We demonstrate the robustness of this finding with respect to endogenously evolving
bargaining power and division of child-rearing time within the household.