Description: Reading Group: Anson Zhou (University of Hong Kong)

Location: Virtual

Contact Person: Juan Carlos Cordoba

Title: The Autumn of Patriarchy

Abstract: This paper develops a unified model that explains the transition from patriarchal societies to egalitarian ones, featuring declines in fertility, marriage, and gender income gaps. I propose and empirically verify a novel Impossible Trinity hypothesis in family economics: high fertility, dual parenthood, and gender income equality are unlikely to coexist. I also show that factor-neutral technological changes sow seeds of the inevitable demise of patriarchy by raising the opportunity cost of having children. The pace of the ultimate transition could vary across countries due to factors such as the social norm.