Jun 15, 2021 - Mar 31, 2022

Gender, Development, and Protestantism: Evidence from 20th Century Korea

In this proposed research project, we aim to investigate the long-run influences of historical religious missions on women’s empowerment in Korea. Specifically, we will examine how exposure to early Protestant missionary activities in the late 19^th- and early 20^th century affected women’s education, labor market participation, marriage, fertility, and political leadership in modern-day South Korea. To do so, we construct a novel dataset which combines historical data extracted from historical church records, maps, and various socioeconomic surveys and censuses, with contemporary data on demographics, and economic and political activities. We will also identify the underlying mechanisms of the long-term influences of Protestant missions, exploiting a rich source of information from population censuses and records on schools, firms, and other measures of economic development during the colonial era (1910-1945).