Feminization of labour and profit rates: evidence from OECD countries

The article examines the effect of the feminization of labour on profit rates and capacity utilization by employing an indirect and two-stage least squares models for 21 OECD countries during the 1970–2008 period. Findings show that higher women’s labour force participation rates and gender wage gap lead to higher profit rates.     

Economic Backwardness and Social Tension*

We propose that relative economic backwardness contributes to the build‐up of social tension and non‐violent and violent conflict. We test our hypothesis using data on organized mass movements and armed civil conflict. The findings show that greater economic backwardness is consistently linked to a higher probability of onset of violent and especially non‐violent forms of civil unrest. We provide evidence that the relationship is causal in instrumental variables estimations using new instruments, including mailing speeds and telegram charges around 1900. The magnitude of the effect of backwardness on social tension increases in the two‐stage least‐squares estimations.