December 12th 2006

The working group leaded by Enriqueta Camps, an Economic History professor at UPF, have received a grant from Instituto de la Mujer, an entity forming part of Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales from the Spanish Government. This subsidy will allow Ms. Camps to continue the lines of research that she began during her near two-year placement at the Economics Department of Harvard University (from January 2005 to August 2006).

The project, which is initially planned for 3 years, aims to analyse the impact of gender inequality regarding access to human capital (health and education) on economic development. The research is based on comparative data and analysis from Latin America, Northern Africa, Europe and Asia during the 20th. Century. This project, which bears the title "Gender, human capital and inequality: a comparative perspective", will be a continuation of the three Working Papers that Enriqueta Camps wrote during her leave at Harvard: 1.Globalization and wage inequality in South and East Asia, and Latin America: a gender approach (joint with M.Camou, N.Mora-Sitja, S. Maubrigades). 2 Poverty and children's work in 19th. and 20 th. century Spain and nowadays developing countries. First results. 3 "The impact of women's educational and economic resources on fertility. Spanish birth cohorts 1901-1950" (joint with P. Baizán).

The working group, headed by Enriqueta Camps from UPF, is formed by Li Han from Harvard University (USA), Natàlia Mora-Sitja from Cambrigde University (United Kingdom), Jordi Domenech from York University (United Kingdom), Angelique Janssens from Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (Netherlands), Maria Camou and Silvana Maubrigades from Universidad de la República (Uruguay).

Abstract of the project

Equity in access to consumer foodstuffs, health services and education are fundamental to the development of women's capabilities, their freedom and empowerment, and their economic decision-making, something important to understand the final market power of women. These are crucial towards guaranteeing a greater welfare and well being in the marriage contract and family life.

Not only does women's health and education act in their own benefit but also in that of their children. The mother's education is fundamental to the formation of new human capital. Less quantity and more quality of younger generations are key factors to stimulate the economic growth of poor countries. Women's education, therefore, is one of the means to escape from the poverty trap. However this process is complex and the ways of promoting women's and girl's education depend on the culture of each country, which is why the project has a comparative approach. The project also aims to further study the impact of globalization on women's final market power. Globalization, in promoting market exposure is contemporaneously a means to increase market power. This last fact is the reason why not gendered measures of waged income inequality decrease as a result of globalizing forces.