Selected publications
Litchfield, J., Douarin, E., & Gashi, F. (2024). Angry Men and Civic Women? Gendered Effects of Conflict on Political Participation in Kosovo. Feminist Economics, 1–40.
Abstract:
This article studies the effect of the 1998–99 Kosovo war on current political participation, disaggregating the analysis by the type of conflict experience – namely death or injury to self or a family member or displacement – and by gender. The results show that experience of conflict is associated with more political participation but with important distinctions between genders by the form of participation and the type of conflict experience. Displacement is associated with more voting among women, but not among men, and with more demonstrating by men but weaker or no effects for women; death and injury are associated with higher political party membership for men but not women. While experiences of conflict increase levels of political participation, the form that this takes varies by gender, with effects on private, civic, action among women, and effects on direct, public, and more emotionally heightened engagement among men.
Douarin, E. (2024) “Alternative Currencies of Support – Introduction: Sharing Norms” in Ledeneva A., Teague E., Matijevic P., Moisé G.M., Majda P., Toqmadi M. (eds.) The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality. Volume 3. London: UCL Press, 2024.
Abstract:
This short conceptual note (running from page 231 to 234) introduces the chapter on “Alternative Currencies of Support”. It focuses on sharing norms, which are the norms around sharing within a community, which can in some cases translate into an obligation to share and support co-members. While these norms offer a protection against shock through solidarity, they also impose a tax on community members, sometimes described as a “dark side”. The note discusses informal rules around sharing within a group as a dimension of social capital, being translated both in the network or ties bounding the group and the norms shared by its members. It also relates sharing norms to other widely used cultural norms including the strength of “family ties”, universalism, Hofstede’s concept of individualism/collectivism or Schwartz’ embeddedness. It concludes on the second-best nature of these norms.
Douarin, E. and Hinks, T. (2024) ‘Individualism, universalism and climate change’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 20, p. e17.
Abstract:
Is ‘individualism’ pure selfishness? The climate change literature often assumes so. However, individualism can be seen as capturing values aligned with self-determination and self-achievement but also universalism. Indeed, cultural psychology recognises individualism as reflecting both personal agency and one's embeddedness, not in narrowly defined in-groups, but in society broadly. Through this lens, individualism can be consistent with adopting pro-social behaviours, including climate-friendly behaviours. But the under-exploration of the concept means empirical evidence is limited. Using cross-country, cross-sectional data we find that individualistic values are associated with an increased willingness to take individual-level actions against climate change. Individualism is also not associated with less support for additional taxes levied to fight climate change, and those willing to take more individual level actions against climate change are also more supportive of additional climate change taxes. Overall, our results confirm that individualism can be associated with taking actions for the greater good.
Douarin, E. & Uberti, L. J. (2023) The Feminization U. In: Zimmermann, Klaus F, (ed.) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. (pp. 1-30). Springer: Cham, Switzerland.
Abstract:
The feminization U, which describes the tendency of female labor force participation (FLFP) to first decline and then rise as per capita income grows, is a well-known “stylized fact” of economic development. Empirical studies have documented this pattern using cross-country, time series, subnational, and, most recently, panel data. Overall, the evidence confirms the existence of a U-shaped relationship between per capita GDP and female labor supply, at least for an important subset of countries. The theoretical literature has also described several mechanisms from which a U-shaped relationship may arise. In particular, the U-curve has been linked to structural change, fertility dynamics, and to variation in the gender gap in education levels along the process of economic development. Some recent contributions have highlighted important heterogeneities in the income path of FLFP: whether each of these three mechanisms is operative depends on initial conditions – specifically, the gender-role cultural norms that prevail as an economy embarks on the process of economic development. Accordingly, the income path of FLFP has been shown to be more or less U-shaped depending on initial conditions.
Uberti, L.J. & Douarin, E. (2023) The Feminisation U, cultural norms, and the plough. Journal of Population Economics 36, 5–35.
Abstract:
The Feminisation U describes the tendency of female labour force participation (FLFP) to first decline and then rise in the process of economic development. While the Feminisation U is often presented as a ‘stylised fact’ of development, empirical support for it is mixed. Here, we show that cultural norms inherited from ancestral plough use exert a moderating influence on the shape of the Feminisation U. Specifically, we find a significantly U-shaped path of FLFP only in countries whose ancestors employed a plough-based agricultural technology. The shape of the U-curve becomes progressively more muted as the share of a country's ancestors that practiced plough agriculture decreases. In countries with little or no legacy of historical plough use, the time path of FLFP is effectively flat. This pattern of results is robust to correcting for dynamic panel bias, instrumenting for per-capita income, and controlling for other potential effect modifiers. Our findings are compatible with a nuanced reading of the main theoretical models proposed in the literature to explain the Feminisation U.
Published version (Open Access)