author: Field, E., Pande, R., Rigol, N., Schaner, S., & Moore, C. T.
year: 2019
title: "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women’s Financial Control Affects Labor Supply and Gender Norms" 
publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
uri: https://doi.org/10.3386/w26294
pubtype: working paper
discipline: development

country: India
period: 2013-2017
maxlength: 36
targeting: explicit
group: women workers
data: baseline, 2 follow-up surveys; MGNREGS Program Management information system (MIS)

design: experimental
method: RCT; individual account (partial treatment), account + training (full treatment)
sample: 5851
unit: household
representativeness: subnational, rural
causal: 1 # 0 correlation / 1 causal

theory: financial empowerment as normative tool
limitations: possibility of upward bias due to attenuation over time
observation:
  - intervention: training (financial)
    institutional: 0
    structural: 0
    agency: 1
    inequality: gender
    type: 1 # 0 vertical / 1 horizontal
    indicator: 0 # 0 absolute / 1 relative
    measures: employment; hours worked
    findings: short-term deposits into women's own accounts and training increased labour supply; long-term increased acceptance of female work and female hours worked
    channels: increased bargaining power through greater control of income
    direction: 1 # -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
    significance: 2 # 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg

notes: long-run effects for constrained women working driven by private sector
annotation: |
  An experimental study looking at the effects of granting women increased access to their own financial accounts and training, on their employment and hours worked, as well as long-term economic empowerment.
  The background of the experiment was the rural Indian MGNREGS[^1] programme which, despite ostensibly mandated gender wage parity, runs the risk of discouraging female workers and restrictring their agency by depositing earned wages into a single household account --- predominantly owned by the male head of household.
  To grant increased financial access, the treatment changed the deposits into newly opened individual accounts for the women workers, as well as providing additional training to some women.
  It found that, short-term, the deposits into women's individual accounts in combination with provided training increased their labour supply, while longer-term there was an increased acceptance of female work in affected households and a significant increase in women's hours worked.
  The impacts on increased hours worked were concentrated on those households where previously women worked relatively lower amounts and there were stronger norms against female work while less constrained households' impacts dissipated over time.
  The authors suggest the primary channel is the newly increased bargaining power through having a greater control of one's income, and that it in turn also reflects onto gender norms themselves.

  [^1]: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, one of the largest redistribution programmes on the household level in the world, entitling each household to up to 100 days of work per year.