Data and Code for: Women's Suffrage and Children's Education

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Esra Kose, Bucknell University; Elira Kuka, George Washington University; Na'ama Shenhav, Dartmouth College

Version:  View help for Version V1

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  dofiles 07/07/2020 05:12:PM
  rawdata 06/15/2020 04:41:PM
README_-AEJPol-2018-0677.pdf application/pdf 54.9 KB 07/07/2020 01:14:PM

Project Citation: 

Kose, Esra, Kuka, Elira, and Shenhav, Na’ama. Data and Code for: Women’s Suffrage and Children’s Education. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-07-20. https://doi.org/10.3886/E119925V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary While a growing literature shows that women, relative to men, prefer greater investment in children, it is unclear whether empowering women produces better economic outcomes. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in U.S. suffrage laws, we show that exposure to suffrage during childhood led to large increases in educational attainment for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially blacks and Southern whites. We also find that suffrage led to higher earnings alongside education gains, although not for Southern blacks. Using newly-digitized data, we show that education increases are primarily explained by suffrage-induced growth in education spending, although early-life health improvements may have also contributed.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      I21 Analysis of Education
      N32 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-


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V1 [2021-07-20]

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