Female empowerment and household emissions

Existing evidence from surveys and text analysis of social media suggests that women have more pro-environmental attitudes than men. However, there is little evidence of concrete gender differences in patterns of greenhouse gas emissions. We develop a new approach to structurally estimating gender differences in emissions propensity, grounded in a household bargaining model augmented with emissions parameters. Using UK data, we find that women have lower emissions propensities than men, and therefore greater female empowerment is associated with lower household emissions intensity. If the average UK heterosexual working couple transitioned to gender-equal bargaining, its emissions would fall by more than 2%. Our findings suggest that policies aimed at increasing female bargaining power, for instance by narrowing gender pay gaps, may have the additional benefit of reducing household emissions.