Impact of Financial Control on Women’s Labor Supply and Gender Norms in India

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secondary evaluation summary · J-PAL

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Baseline Work Heterogeneity

"Consistent with the notion that women were prevented from working outside the home for pay by their husbands, women who had not previously worked for MGNREGS and whose husbands had more conservative views on women's work saw a greater increase in public and private labor force participation than women who had previously worked for MGNREGS."

Economic Targeting for Social Norm Shift

"In some settings, such economic approaches may be less costly and simpler than programs that target norms directly, though more research on this is needed."

Financial Literacy Kiosk Training

"The researchers note that the demonstrated impacts are concentrated among women who received both training and direct deposit in addition to bank account access, indicating that both financial knowledge and agency are needed to increase financial control."

Gender-Targeted Direct Wage Deposit

"Relative to just providing bank accounts, additionally providing training and direct deposits changed gender norms: women worked outside the home more, had greater financial agency, and were more likely to approve of women working."

Intra-Household Labor Gatekeeping

"Importantly, a majority of married women in the studied village clusters stated their husband had the most say in whether they worked."

Male Labor Supply Compensation

"In line with women having greater control over household financial resources, men were also more likely to work in the public sector, suggesting that they were compensating for income now in the control of female household members."

Male Provider Stigma

"On average, men in the study sample anticipated 56% of their community members would think they were a bad provider if their wives worked outside the home for pay."