Catherine Guirkinger

Full professor , University de Namur


Working Papers

    • with P. Villar,  2025, A Mandate to Multiply: The Effects of Pro-Birth Policies on Fertility in Colonial Congo
    • with P. Alvarez and P. Villar, 2025, School Clustering and Religious Competition: Persistence of Educational Inequality in Colonial and Post-Colonial Congo
    • with H. Champeaux, 2025, The Price of Height: Parental Investments in Daughters and Marriage Payments in sub-Saharan Africa
    • with D. Baraka, 2025, Cooperation in Polygamous Households. Experimental Evidence from Northern Benin
    • with D. Baraka, 2024, Gender Inequality in Workload and Nutrition in Agricultural Households – New Insights from Activity Tracker Data in Rural Burkina Faso
    • with J.M. Baland, P. Levebvre and K. Morsink, 2023, Domestic Violence, Divorce and Women Empowerment

     

Publications

 

On-going Projects

    • Impacts of colonial policies on population structure and well-being in the long run in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (with B. Schoumaker) financed by the Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique.  This project has three primary objectives. First, we will develop high-quality demographic and economic micro-databases for the period 1950 to 1984 in Congo/Zaire. A major task involves digitizing photos of the original 1984 census questionnaires using recent AI advancements for automatic data extraction of hand-written information. This new database will be complemented by digitized records from the 1970s, existing databases on demographic and economic indicators, and pre-colonial cultural practices. Additionally, we will compile new data on colonial poll tax and forced labor, linking these to existing databases. These unique databases will open up extensive research possibilities for us and other research teams.
      Second, leveraging this data, we will document trends and geographic disparities in demographic and economic outcomes, such as survival, education, marriage patterns, fertility, and occupation. A key focus will be on gender, aiming to understand how women’s experiences have differed from men’s over time and space and to explore historical determinants of gender gaps.
      Third, we will combine demographic analysis, historical context, and economic theory to provide a comprehensive understanding of the long-term impacts of specific colonial policies on population structure and individual well-being. We will focus particularly on colonial education and health policies, as well as poll tax and labor policies. By examining the intensity of these policies across different regions and time periods, we can assess their effects on the individuals directly exposed to them and subsequent generations.
    • The Economics of Religious Conversion: Understanding the attraction of African Women to New Christian Churches (with P. Alvarez and J.P. Platteau) This research project investigates the link between religious conversion and women’s empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on the rapid expansion of evangelical churches. Historically, economic development has involved the decline of kin-based institutions and the rise of new forms of community organization, including religious groups. In this context, the growing appeal of evangelical churches—particularly among women—raises critical questions. We hypothesize that for many women, conversion represents a means to emancipate themselves from patriarchal clan structures and restrictive traditional norms and that this emancipation is particularly critical when new economic opportunities emerge for women. Our approach is twofold. First, we explore the dynamics of religious conversion within households, including potential negotiations between spouses. Second, we assess the social and economic benefits derived from church membership, such as mutual aid, risk-sharing, and greater female agency in fertility and education decisions. Empirical strategies combine three methodologies: (1) analysis of DHS surveys to document gendered conversion patterns; (2) original survey data from Benin to capture motivations and consequences of conversion; and (3) lab-in-the-field experiments to test mechanisms related to solidarity, credit, and kin-taxation.
    • Husbands in the Room: The Impact of Joint vs. Women-Only Training on Household Dynamics in Benin (with P. Alvarez, A. Jolivet and A. Lülle)
    • Bottom-up discrimination by gender: insights from Benin’s pineapple sector (with A. Lülle and J.P. Platteau)