Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T06:02:01.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Oil discoveries and gender inequality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2022

Anca M. Grecu Open the ORCID record for Anca M. Grecu [Opens in a new window]  and
Edner Bataille
Anca M. Grecu*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Legal Studies, Seton Hall University, Stillman School of Business, South Orange, NJ 07079, USA
Edner Bataille
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Legal Studies, Seton Hall University, Stillman School of Business, South Orange, NJ 07079, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: anca.grecu@shu.edu
Get access

Abstract

Some studies suggest that resource-rich countries tend to allocate talent and investment toward the resource sector and away from manufacturing or agriculture reducing the competitiveness of these other sectors. Because mining overwhelmingly employs men, when other sectors shrink so do employment opportunities for women (Ross, 2008). This could significantly affect core social structures. Using plausibly exogenous variation in natural resource wealth due to giant oil discoveries and an event study design, this paper finds that giant oil discoveries are associated with relatively worse female outcomes as measured by higher male/female population ratios, higher teen birth rates, and lower educational attendance of tertiary education among women relative to men. However, the impact on health outcomes tapers off within 8 years. Additionally, during periods of increasing oil prices, there is no significant evidence of such effects possibly due to an income effect.

Keywords

Educationgender population structuregiant oil discoverieshealthresource curse

JEL classification

Q33: Resource Booms J13: Fertility • Family Planning • Child Care • Children • Youth J16: Economics of Gender • Non-labor Discrimination
Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , Volume 90 , Issue 1 , March 2024 , pp. 1 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, Daron, Finkelstein, Amy and Notowidigdo, Matthew J. (2013) Income and health spending—evidence from oil price shocks. Review of Economics and Statistics 95(4), 1079–1095.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Giuliano, Paola and Nunn, Nathan (2013) On the origins of gender roles: women and the plough. Quarterly Journal of Economics 128(2), 469–530.Google Scholar
Alexeev, Michael and Conrad, Robert (2009) The elusive curse of oil. Review of Economics and Statistics 91(3), 586–598.Google Scholar
Amadiume, Ifi (1997) Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, Culture. London: Zed Book Ltd.Google Scholar
Aragon, Fernando M. and Rud, Juan Pablo (2013) Natural resources and local communities: evidence from a Peruvian gold mine. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 5, 1–25.Google Scholar
Bartik, Alexander W., Currie, Janet, Greenstone, Michael and Knittel, Christopher R. (2019) The local economic and welfare consequences of hydraulic fracturing. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 11(4), 105–155.Google Scholar
Bertrand, Marianne, Duflo, Esther and Mullainathan, Sedhil (2004) How much should we trust differences-in-differences estimates? Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, 249–275.Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy and Kudamatsu, Masayuki (2006) Health and democracy. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 96(2), 313–318.Google Scholar
Black, Dan, Kolesnikova, Natalia, Sanders, Seth G. and Taylor, Lowell J. (2013) Are children normal? Review of Economics and Statistics 95(1), 21–33.Google Scholar
Bloom, David E., Canning, David, Fink, Günther and Finlay, Jocelyn E. (2009) Fertility, female labor force participation, and the demographic dividend. Journal of Economic Growth 14, 79–101.Google Scholar
Bohn, Henning and Deacon, Robert T. (2000) Ownership risk, investment, and the use of natural resources. American Economic Review 90(3), 526–549.Google Scholar
Brown, Jason P., Goetz, Stephan J., Ahearn, Mary C. and Liang, Chyi-lyi (Kathleen) (2014) Linkages between community-focused agriculture, farm sales and regional growth. Economic Development Quarterly 28(1), 5–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunnschweiler, Christa N. and Bulte, Erwin H. (2008) The natural resource curse revisited and revised: a tale of paradoxes and red herrings. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 55(3), 248–264.Google Scholar
Carranza, Eliana (2014) Soil endowments, female labor force participation, and the demographic deficit of women in India. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 6(4), 197–225.Google Scholar
Caselli, Francesco, Morelli, Massimo and Rohner, Dominic (2015) The geography of interstate resource wars. Quarterly Journal of Economics 130(1), 267–315.Google Scholar
Chambers, Edward J. and Gordon, Donald F. (1966) Primary products and economic growth: an empirical measurement. Journal of Political Economy 74(4), 315–332.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul and Hoeffler, Anke (1998) On economic causes of civil war. Oxford Economic Papers 50, 563–573.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul and Hoeffler, Anke (2004) Greed and grievance in civil war. Oxford Economic Papers 56(4), 563–595.Google Scholar
Cotet, Anca M. and Tsui, Kevin K. (2013) Oil, growth and health: what does the cross-country evidence really show? Scandinavian Journal of Economics 115(4), 1107–1137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, Paul A. and Wright, Gavin (1997) Increasing returns and the genesis of American resource abundance. Industrial and Corporate Change 6(2), 203–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dhar, Diva, Jain, Tarun and Jayachandran, Seema (2019) Intergenerational transmission of gender attitudes: evidence from India. The Journal of Development Studies 55(12), 2572–2592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driscoll, John C. and Kraay, Aart C. (1998) Consistent covariance matrix estimation with spatially dependent panel data. Review of Economics and Statistics 80, 549–560.Google Scholar
Fargues, Philippe (2005) Women in Arab countries: challenging the patriarchal system? Reproductive Health Matters 13(25), 43–48.Google Scholar
Fernandez, Raquel and Fogli, Alessandra (2009) Culture: an empirical investigation of beliefs, work, and fertility. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 1(1), 146–177.Google Scholar
Fortin, Nicole M. (2005) Gender role attitudes and the labour-market outcomes of women across OECD countries. Oxford Review of Economic Policy 21(3), 416–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleditsch, Nils Petter, Wallensteen, Peter, Eriksson, Mikael, Sollenberg, Margareta and Strand, Håvard (2002) Armed conflict 1946–2001: a new dataset. Journal of Peace Research 39(5), 615–637.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia (1995) The U-shaped female labor force function in economic development and economic history. In Schultz, T. P. (ed.), Investment in Women's Human Capital and Economic Development, 61–90, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gylfason, Thorvaldur (2001) Natural resources, education, and economic development. European Economic Review 45, 847–859.Google Scholar
IRENA (2019) Renewable Energy: A Gender Perspective. Abu Dhabi: IRENA.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, Grant D. (2019) Who wins in an energy boom? Evidence from wage rates and housing. Economic Inquiry 57(1), 9–32.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, Grant D. and Parker, D. (2014) The economics aftermath of resource booms: evidence from boomtowns in the American West. Economic Journal 126(593), 1092–1128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacquet, Jeffrey (2011) Workforce Development Challenges in the Natural Gas Industry. Cornell University City and Regional Planning Working Paper Series, February.Google Scholar
Johnston, Nick and Silva, Marta (2020) Gender diversity in energy: what we know and what we don't know. Available at https://www.iea.org/commentaries/gender-diversity-in-energy-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-know. Accessed December 29, 2020.Google Scholar
Koenig, Michael A. and D'Souza, Stan (1986) Sex differences in childhood mortality in rural Bangladesh. Social Science and Medicine 22(1), 15–22.Google Scholar
Komarek, Timothy M. (2016) Labor market dynamics and the unconventional natural gas boom: evidence from the Marcellus region. Resource and Energy Economics 45, 1–17.Google Scholar
Kraemer, Sebastian (2000) The fragile male. British Medical Journal 321, 1609–1612.Google Scholar
Laherrere, Jean (1998) Development ratio evolves as true measure of exploitation—evaluating oil and gas reserves. World Oil, February, 117–120.Google Scholar
Leeson, Peter T. and Suarez, Paola A. (2017) Child brides. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 144, 40–61.Google Scholar
Lei, Yu-Hsiang and Michaels, Guy (2014) Do giant oilfield discoveries fuel internal armed conflicts? Journal of Development Economics 110, 139–157.Google Scholar
Leite, Carlos and Weidmann, Jens (2002) Does mother nature corrupt? Natural resources, corruption, and economic growth. In Governance, Corruption, and Economic Performance, 159–196, Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund.Google Scholar
Lindo, Jason M. (2010) Are children really Inferior goods? Evidence from displacement-driven income shocks. The Journal of Human Resources 45(2), 301–327.Google Scholar
Liou, Yu-Ming and Musgrave, Paul (2016) Oil, autocratic survival, and the gendered resource curse: inefficient policy is politically expedient. International Studies Quarterly 60, 440–456.Google Scholar
Mammen, Kristin and Paxson, Christina (2000) Women's work and economic development. Journal of Economic Perspectives 14(Autumn), 141–164.Google Scholar
Maniloff, Peter and Mastromonaco, Ralph (2017) The local employment impact of fracking: a national study. Resource and Energy Economics 49, 62–85.Google Scholar
Mehlum, Halvor, Moene, Karl and Torvik, Ragnar (2006) Institutions and the resource curse. Economic Journal 116(508), 1–20.Google Scholar
Nicolson, Malcolm and Fleming, John (2013) Imaging and Imagining the Fetus: The Development of Obstetric Ultrasound. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Samuel H. (1976) Mortality Patterns in National Populations: With Special Reference to Recorded Causes of Death. New-York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Qian, Nancy (2008) Missing women and the price of tea in China: the effect of sex-specific earnings on sex imbalance. Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(3), 1251–1285.Google Scholar
Robelius, Fredrik (2007) Giant Oil Fields -The Highway to Oil: Giant Oil Fields and their Importance for Future Oil Production. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology. Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-554-6823-1.Google Scholar
Robinson, James A., Torvik, Ragnar and Verdier, Thierry (2006) Political foundations of the resource curse. Journal of Development Economics 79(2), 447–468.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Schultz, T. Paul (1982) Market opportunities, genetic endowments and intrafamily resource distribution: child survival in rural India. American Economic Review 72(4), 803–815.Google Scholar
Ross, Michael L. (2001) Does oil hinder democracy? World Politics 53(3), 325–361.Google Scholar
Ross, Michael (2003) How does mineral wealth affect the poor? Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228601978_How_does_mineral_wealth_affect_the_poor.Google Scholar
Ross, Michael L. (2006) A closer look at oil, diamonds, and civil war. Annual Review of Political Science 9, 265–300.Google Scholar
Ross, Michael L. (2008) Oil, Islam, and women. American Political Science Review 102(1), 107–123.Google Scholar
Sachs, Jeffrey D. and Warner, Andrew M. (1995) Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth. NBER Working Paper No. 5398.Google Scholar
Simmons, Joel W (2019) Does oil substitute for patriarchy? Economics & Politics 31(3), 293–322.Google Scholar
Stijns, Jean-Philippe C (2005) Natural resource abundance and economic growth revisited. Resources Policy 30(2), 107–130.Google Scholar
Torvik, Ragnar (2002) Natural resources, rent seeking and welfare. Journal of Development Economics 67(2), 455–470.Google Scholar
Trivers, Robert L. and Willard, Dan E. (1973) Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex-ratio of offspring. Science (New York, N.Y.) 179, 90–92.Google Scholar
Tsui, Kevin K. (2011) More oil, less democracy: evidence from worldwide crude oil discoveries. Economic Journal 121(551), 89–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsvetkova, Alexandra and Partridge, Mark D. (2016) Economics of modern energy boomtowns: do oil and gas shocks differ from shocks in the rest of the economy? Energy Economics 59, 81–95.Google Scholar
Voigtlander, Nico and Voth, Hans-Joachim (2013) How the west “invented” fertility restrictions. American Economic Review 103(6), 2227–2264.Google Scholar
Weber, Jeremy G. (2012) The effects of a natural gas boom on employment and income in Colorado, Texas, and Wyoming. Energy Economics 34, 1580–1588.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Grecu and Bataille supplementary material 1

Grecu and Bataille supplementary material
Download Grecu and Bataille supplementary material 1(File)
File 2.8 KB
Supplementary material: File

Grecu and Bataille supplementary material 2

Grecu and Bataille supplementary material
Download Grecu and Bataille supplementary material 2(File)
File 724.3 KB