Person: La Ferrara, Eliana
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La Ferrara
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Eliana
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La Ferrara, Eliana
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Publication Violence Against Women: A Cross-cultural Analysis for Africa(2016) Alesina, Alberto; Brioschi, Benedetta; La Ferrara, ElianaUsing a new dataset, we investigate the determinants of violence against women in Africa. We focus on cultural factors arising from pre-colonial customs and find evidence consistent with two hypotheses. First, ancient socioeconomic conditions determine social norms about gender roles, family structures and intrafamily violence which persist even when the initial conditions change. Norms about marriage patterns, living arrangements and the productive role of women are associated with contemporary violence. Second, women’s contemporary economic role affects violence in a complex way which is itself related to traditional norms in ancient times and current bargaining power within the marriage.Publication A Stepping Stone Approach to Norm Transitions(Harvard Kennedy School, 2023-04) Gulesci, Selim; Jindani, Sam; La Ferrara, Eliana; Smerdon, David; Sulaiman, Munshi; Young, H. PeytonWe propose a model to study when an intermediate action can serve as a stepping stone that enables the elimination of a harmful norm. While the intermediate action may facilitate the first “step”, it may also become a new norm. We derive intuitive conditions for stepping stones, which depend on the relative size of social penalties and intrinsic utility benefits. We propose an econometric approach to testing whether an intermediate action is a stepping stone, and apply it to original data on female genital cutting in Somalia. The analysis shows that the intermediate action may become the new norm.