The Returns of "I Do": Multifaceted Female Decision-making and Agricultural Yields in Tanzania

Using the third round of the Tanzanian National Panel Survey, this study delves into the productivity returns of multifaceted female empowerment in agriculture. Unlike the classic unidimensional approach to identify gender gaps in agricultural yields, this study lays emphasis on the overlapping of manifold aspects of female empowerment in agriculture - including female plot ownership, female plot management and female control over the agricultural output - through a threefold interaction model. Next, I use Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique to understanding the mechanisms underlying significant yields gaps, as well as to assess the returns of female management and control rights to the classic yields gap against femaleowned plots. This study identifies significant yields gaps that would go unnoticed through the classic unidimensional approach. More specifically, and this is the first returns of female decision-making rights, female owners who further manage and control their owned plots are more productive than female mere owners. Next, female decision-making rights contribute at narrowing the classic yields gap against female-owned plots, mostly through the structural disadvantage - that is through lower productivity returns to factors of production - against female owners who would not manage their plot, nor control the agricultural output - the fruit of their labor. These findings are robust along several dimensions and call for a few implications with respect to collection and analysis of agricultural data, as well as to gender policies in agriculture.