The Law is the Last to Know: Evidence That De Facto Progress Drives De Jure Women's Rights

ABSTRACT This paper examines how improvements in women's formal legal rights shape economic and social outcomes across countries. Using the Gender Disparity Index from the Economic Freedom of the World dataset, we analyze cases where countries experienced substantial increases in women's legal rights sustained for at least 5 years. Contrary to expectations, our findings show that such policy changes did not yield better economic and social outcomes. To explain these results, we demonstrate that the average annual gains in de facto property rights for women were greatest before these changes were codified into law. Formal legal advances follow, rather than drive, informal changes in women's social participation and economic roles. This study emphasizes the informal dependency of institutional change and its implications for economic development and social welfare.