Women's Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4122364
AutoresIsis Gaddis (0000-0002-4450-0723, autor correspondente), Rahul Lahoti (0000-0001-6148-0835), Hema Swaminathan (0000-0002-1822-1704)
Ano2022
Volume48
Fascículo2
Páginas331-377
Data de publicação2022-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPopulation and Development Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0098-7921 • E-ISSN: 1728-4457
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/padr.12493
OpenAlexW4293073048
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas55

Women's property ownership matters for their well-being and agency, broader economic prosperity, and children's development. However, until recently, a lack of data has constrained further exploration of gender differences in property ownership in the developing world. Using data from 41 developing countries, this paper contributes to the literature by investigating gender gaps in the incidence of property ownership among couples and the factors associated with these gaps, focusing on the role of legal systems. We find that in almost all countries, husbands are more likely to own property than wives. Across countries in our sample, husbands are, on average, 2.7 times more like than wives to own property alone and 1.4 times more likely to own property alone or jointly. Within countries, gender gaps in the incidence of property ownership are most pronounced for disadvantaged groups, that is, the rural population and the poorest quintile. These gender gaps reflect a variety of factors, including discriminatory laws with respect to inheritance, property ownership, marital regimes, and laws that protect from workplace discrimination. Countries with more gender egalitarian legal regimes have higher levels of property ownership by married women, especially housing, suggesting that legal reforms are a potential mechanism to increase women's property ownership

Business · Demographic economics · Developing country · Development economics · Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Inheritance (genetic algorithm) · Political science · Population · Property (philosophy) · Property rights · Prosperity · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics) · Demography · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Urban and Rural Development Challenges