Independence of Youth Opportunity Effects from Maternal Bargaining Power
RCTClinical Trial
When labor market opportunities open for young women, changes in young girls' health and schooling could theoretically stem from increased decision-making power of working mothers rather than the direct future returns of the daughters. Disentangling daughter-specific economic returns from maternal bargaining shifts is critical for identifying the true causal driver of child investments.
Picture this
Imagine a family garden where carrots start getting watered more. Is it because the mother took control of the watering hose, or because everyone in the family realized carrots can now be sold for double the price at market? If mothers who didn't gain any new power still water the carrots more, it proves the increased watering is driven by the carrot's higher market price, not a shift in who holds the hose.
What the evidence says
The recruiting treatment had no statistically significant impact on women's decision-making participation (-0.071, p > 0.10) or autonomy index (+0.112, p > 0.10), proving youth human capital and family formation gains operate independently of adult female bargaining power.
- Who was studied
- 3,334 to 3,415 ever-married adult women across 160 rural Indian villages in households where no adult member had 10+ years of schooling.
- How
- Subsample RCT mechanism test measuring self-reported indices of female decision-making participation (scale 0-10) and personal autonomy (scale 0-3) at follow-up.
What to do
Evaluate youth economic empowerment programs using restricted subsample analyses to verify that human capital gains are driven by direct child opportunity returns rather than adult intrahousehold power reallocations.
From the source
"The treatment does not have a statistically significant impact on women's participation in decision making for schooling and health specifically, or for overall decision making and women's autonomy..."
517 labor market opportunities QJE April '12.pdf