Paper short abstract:

We leverage variation in social norms related to inheritance and wealth management among matrilineal and patrilineal tribal groups in Meghalaya in order to study the determinants of the gender gap in political economy preferences and behavior.

Paper long abstract:

What explains the gender gap in policy economy preferences and political engagement? Isolating the origins of the gender gap is fraught with methodological difficulties because the determinants typically evoked by scholars—economic resources, social norms, and political institutions—are difficult to disentangle. We leverage the unique cultural setting of Meghalaya, in northeast India, where the world's few remaining matrilineal tribes live in close proximity to patrilineal communities. By exploiting variation in social norms related to inheritance and wealth management, we are able to better identify the relationship between social norms, material resources, and political economy preferences and behavior. Using extensive survey, experimental, and qualitative research, we show that the gender gap in preferences about the welfare state closes completely in matrilineal tribes, even while it remains strong and comparable to gender gaps across the contemporary world in patrilineal groups. Secondly, in the domain of political engagement we find that the typical gender gap reverses. Our findings indicate that social norms can determine political economy preferences and behavior via their effect on material resources.