Historical gender discrimination does not explain comparative Western European development: evidence from Portugal, 1300-1900
研究利用葡萄牙六百年数据，发现其女性在工资、婚龄和劳动参与上并不比西北欧更受歧视，因此性别歧视不能解释西欧内部收入分化。
Gender discrimination has been pointed out as a determining factor behind the long-run divergence in incomes of Southern vis-à-vis Northwestern Europe. In this paper, we show that women in Portugal were not historically more discriminated against than those in other parts of Western Europe, including England and the Netherlands. We rely on a new dataset of thousands of observations from archival sources covering six centuries, and we complement it with a qualitative discussion of comparative social norms. Compared with Northwestern Europe, women in Portugal faced similar gender wage gaps, married at similar ages, and did not face more restrictions on labor market participation. Consequently, other factors must have been responsible for the Little Divergence of Western European incomes.