Masculinity Norms and Their Economic Implications

While economists have extensively studied gender norms affecting women, masculinity norms—social norms about how men should behave—remain underexplored. This review first synthesizes how other disciplines have studied masculinity, providing economists with conceptual foundations and empirical patterns for understanding masculinity norms. We then discuss how the study of masculinity norms can inform the economics literature on gender gaps and men's outcomes across multiple domains: health behavior, labor supply and occupational choice, violence and aggression, and political preferences. We also discuss paths for the transmission and persistence of these norms. Finally, using novel survey data from 70 countries, we present five stylized facts about masculinity norms. We document substantial global variation in these norms and demonstrate their predictive power for various socioeconomic and political outcomes.