European Family Patriarchy in the Past and Contemporary Developmental Inequalities

Abstract

This paper aims to show that contemporary developmental outcomes in Europe vary with historical patterns of age and gender inequality. It builds on the authors' earlier work constructing the Patriarchy Index (PI), which measures age and gender inequality within households based on historical census data. The claimed relationships are tested in a regression framework in which the outcome variables are a set of development indicators (GDP per capita and the HDI), as well as contemporary gender equality indices such as the GII and the SIGI and survey responses from the WVS. The study shows that high scores on the PI consistently predict worse development outcomes (lower development, more gender inequality) and more collectivist values scores. To assess the channels through which this correlation works, we also examine whether the PI itself is persistent, and find that the historical PI is also generally associated with important facets of patriarchal behaviour in the present. Overall, while our study cannot infer causal relationships, our results provide evidence that familial patriarchal patterns at the grassroots of society may be one of the variables associated with contemporary cultural and developmental divergences in Europe.