Gender, Economic Development and Islam: A Perspective from France

52 Pages Posted: 31 Mar 2012

See all articles by Claire L. Adida

Claire L. Adida

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

David Laitin

Stanford University - Department of Political Science; Stanford Immigration Policy Lab

Marie‐Anne Valfort

Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Abstract

Muslims do less well on the French labor market than their non Muslim counterparts. One explanation for this relative failure can be characterized by the following syllogism: (1) the empowerment of women is a sine qua non for economic progress; (2) in-group norms among Muslims do not empower women; and hence (3) Muslim communities will underperform economically relative to non-Muslim communities. This paper, relying on a unique identification strategy that isolates religion from national origin and ethnicity, and on experimental as well as survey evidence collected in France, puts this syllogism to a test. Our data show that Muslim and Christian gender norms are as postulated. However, the correlations between Muslim vs. Christian immigrants and the channels purported to link in-group gender norms to economic progress are weak and inconsistent. Speculations are offered on the intervening variables that mitigate the effect of Muslim gender norms on economic performance.

Keywords: development, Islam, gender, discrimination, France, experimental economics

JEL Classification: C90, D03, J15, J16, J71, Z12

Suggested Citation

Adida, Claire L. and Laitin, David and Valfort, Marie-Anne, Gender, Economic Development and Islam: A Perspective from France. IZA Discussion Paper No. 6421, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2031949 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2031949

Claire L. Adida (Contact Author)

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive
Mail Code 0521
La Jolla, CA 92093-0521
United States

HOME PAGE: http://claire.adida.net

David Laitin

Stanford University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Stanford Immigration Policy Lab

30 Alta Road
Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Marie-Anne Valfort

Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne ( email )

17, rue de la Sorbonne
Paris, IL 75005
France

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
77
Abstract Views
1,058
Rank
224,167
PlumX Metrics