An Account of One바카라 사이트˜s Own: Can Targeting Benefits Payments Address Social Constraints to Labor Force Participation?

This research is part of the Gender Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries programme

Abstract

In collaboration with the state government of Madhya Pradesh, we experimentally varied whether women바카라 사이트™s wages from India바카라 사이트™s public workfare program were deposited into female-owned bank accounts instead of into the male household head바카라 사이트™s account (the status quo). This treatment increased women바카라 사이트™s work, both in the program and in the private sector, despite no change in market wages. Treatment effects are concentrated among two groups of women: those who had not previously worked for the program and those whose husbands disapprove of women working. These results are at odds with a model of household behavior in which labor force participation decisions only depend on wages and own-preference for leisure. Instead, we argue that they are consistent with a model in which gender norms internalized by men limit women바카라 사이트™s labor market engagement.

This research is part of the Gender Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries programme

Citation

Field et al. (2017). An Account of One바카라 사이트˜s Own: Can Targeting Benefits Payments Address Social Constraints to Labor Force Participation? GLMLIC Policy Brief No. 18. Available at: https://g2lm-lic.iza.org/publications/pb/pb18/

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Published 1 December 2020