Revisiting the ancient origins of gender inequality

This paper probes the robustness and plausibility of the long-term impact of traditional plough use on contemporary gender roles established by Alesina, Giuliano and Nunn [Quarterly Journal of Economics (2013) Vol. 128, pp. 469 – 530]. It finds that the reduced-form women-plough relationship is robust to testing a falsification hypothesis, using alternative proxies for gender inequality, and accounting for selection bias from unobservables and spatial dependence. Further evidence suggests that ancestral plough adoption affects today’s gender inequality through shaping historically persistent gender-biased norms reflected in oral traditions. Additionally, the culturally embodied, intergenerationally transmitted impact of traditional plough use on gender inequality is significantly lower among societies whose ancestors were exposed to unstable climatic environments during the period 500 – 1900 CE.