Gender equity is connected to modern energy services in many ways, but quantitative empirical work on these connections is limited. We examine the relationship between a multi-dimensional measure of women’s empowerment and access to improved cookstoves, clean fuels, and electricity. We use the World Bank Multi-Tier Framework survey datasets from seven countries that include almost 25 000 households in Africa and Asia.

The world remains far from meeting Sustainable Development Goals 5 (gender equality) and 7 (universal access to modern energy). Energy access may empower women even as empowered women are more likely to adopt and use modern energy services. Such bidirectional linkages are underappreciated in the empirical literature, which typically estimates unidirectional relationships based on simple binary indicators.

The empirical link between children's cognitive ability and parental risk attitudes has been understudied. Specifically, an individual’s educational outcome may reflect the decisions made on their behalf by parents, reflecting their risk attitudes. This paper aims to fill gaps in the existing literature by investigating whether parental risk preferences influence the cognitive ability of children in Indonesia. Using a dataset from the fifth wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS-5), we find an inverse relation between parental risk aversion and children’s cognitive test scores.

Women's participation in small-scale aquaculture is growing, but women producers remain in a disadvantaged position compared to men. Reducing gender gaps is at the core of many development programs, but little is known regarding the source of these differences. This paper investigates the main drivers of gender gaps in seaweed small-scale aquaculture by focusing on the analysis of differences between male and women, and across a series of psychological traits.

What are the most significant achievements and challenges women have faced over the last 20 years? This chapter aims to provide a more in-depth explanation of women's pathway to empowerment in seven main areas: politics, health, education, work, post-conflict, agriculture, and reduction of sexual violence. Despite the significant progress in gender equality, nowadays there are critical challenges that can only be addressed by cultural and educational changes.