Do Human Rights Treaties Change Economic Outcomes?

What are the economic effects of political treaties? International treaties like CEDAW have significant effects on women’s political and health outcomes. However, we know little about CEDAW’s effect on the informal economy. I argue that CEDAW ratification reduces informal economic activity by reducing barriers for women in the formal sector. Using non-parametric matching and difference-in-differences, I show ratification reduced informality by as much as 2.2% of GDP in certain regions. This work contributes to research in both international organizations and informal economies in two ways. First, this is the earliest work that explicitly links a human rights treaty to the size of a country’s informal economy. Thus, shedding light on the effects of international human rights treaties on economic outcomes and generating new insights and avenues for future research. Second, by addressing model dependence and relaxing implausible unconfoundedness assumptions, I draw stronger causal inference than previous research has allowed.