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Published Article

On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women’s Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms

Can increasing control over earnings incentivize a woman to work, and thereby influence norms around gender roles? We randomly varied whether rural Indian women received bank accounts, training in account use, and direct deposit of public sector wages into their own (versus husbands’) accounts. Relative to the accounts only group, women who also received direct deposit and training worked more in public and private sector jobs. The private sector result suggests gender norms initially constrained female employment. Three years later, direct deposit and training broadly liberalized women’s own work-related norms, and shifted perceptions of community norms.

Title On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women’s Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms
Author
  • Erica Field
  • Rohini Pande
  • Natalia Rigol
  • Simone Schaner
  • Charity Troyer Moore
Published in American Economic Review, 111(7): 2342-75
Publication Date 01/07/2021
Thematic AreaGender and Employment
Project Empowering Women through Public Policy
See Published Article

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