Men. Roots and Consequences of Masculinity Norms

Abstract

Recent research has uncovered the historical roots of gender norms about women and the persistent effect of such norms on economic development. We find similar long-term effects of masculinity norms: beliefs about the proper conduct of men. We exploit a natural historical experiment in which convict transportation in the 18th and 19th century created a variegated spatial pattern of sex ratios across Australia. We show that in areas that were heavily male-biased in the past (though not the present) more Australians recently voted against same-sex marriage, an institution at odds with traditional masculinity norms. Survey data show that this voting pattern is mostly driven by men. Further evidence indicates that these historically male-biased areas also remain characterized by more violence, excessive alcohol consumption, and occupational gender segregation. We interpret these behaviors as manifestations of masculinity norms that emerged due to intense local male-male competition and that persisted over time.

Institutions, attitudes and LGBT: Evidence from the gold rush

“…Our findings also relate to papers analyzing the consequences of disequilibria in sex ratios (e.g., Abramitzky et al (2011); Angrist (2002); Carranza (2014); Hesketh and Xing (2006); Schacht and Kramer (2016); Teso (Forthcoming)). 5 Baranov et al (2018) and Grosjean and Khattar (Forthcoming) analyze the short-and long run effects of the large numbers of male convicts and far fewer female convicts sent to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries. They provide evidence that people living in areas that were historically more male-biased were more likely to vote against same-sex marriage and have more conservative attitudes toward women working.…”

Christian missions and anti-gay attitudes in Africa

“…Scholars of economic development only recently started to systematically explore the determinants of discriminatory attitudes towards LGBTQ+ persons (Baranov, De Haas andGrosjean, 2018, Brodeur andHaddad, 2018). This is an important line of inquiry because discrimination against people based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, and other characteristics is antithetical to prosperity.…”

“…The economic literature has established several important historical determinants of current values and attitudes: pre-industrial economic conditions (Alesina, Giuliano and Nunn, 2013), biased gender ratios (Baranov, De Haas andGrosjean, 2018,Grosjean andKhattar, 2019), slavery (Nunn, 2008), and ancestral political autonomy (Michalopoulos and Papaioannou, 2013). 3 In particular, related to the LGBTQ+ people, Baranov, De Haas and Grosjean (2018) show that malebiased gender ratios influenced opposition to same-sex marriage in Australia as well as occupational segregation by gender, while Brodeur and Haddad (2018) argue that in California during the Gold Rush high male-to-female ratio caused more tolerant attitudes towards homosexuality, Bentzen and Sperling (2020) showed that "faith-based initiatives" in the U.S. promoted scepticism towards homosexuality, towards science, and towards female empowerment. Here, we demonstrate how colonial institutions and religious doctrines shaped attitudes of the indigenous African population, reverting their attitudes toward homosexual persons.…”

Discriminatory Lending: Evidence from Bankers in the Lab

“…The clustering of women in specic sectors also accounts for a large part of the gender wage gap (Blau and Kahn, 2017). A separate strand of work explains the labor-supply decisions of women and men as a function of deep-rooted social norms about the approprivate behavior of women (Alesina, Giuliano and Nunn, 2013;Giuliano, 2018;Grosjean and Khattar, 2019) and men (Baranov, De Haas and Grosjean, 2020). These norms can transmit across generations (Bisin and Verdier, 2001) and lead men and women to self-select into occupations that best match their self-perceived gender identity (Akerlof and Kranton, 2010); to forego entrepreneurial opportunities at odds with prevailing norms (Field, Jayachandran and Pande, 2010); and to be restricted in their choices because social norms have been codied into discriminatory laws (Naaraayanan, 2020).…”