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Measuring and Changing Control: Women's Empowerment and Targeted Transfers

Author

Listed:
  • Almås, Ingvild

    (IIES, Stockholm University)

  • Armand, Alex

    (Nova School of Business and Economics)

  • Attanasio, Orazio

    (Yale University)

  • Carneiro, Pedro

    (University College London)

Abstract

This paper studies how targeted cash transfers to women affect their empowerment. We use a novel identification strategy to measure women's willingness to pay to receive cash transfers instead of their partner receiving it. We apply this among women living in poor households in urban Macedonia. We match experimental data with a unique policy intervention (CCT) in Macedonia offering poor households cash transfers conditional on having their children attending secondary school. The program randomized whether the transfer was offered to household heads or mothers at municipality level, providing us with an exogenous source of variation in (offered) transfers. We show that women who were offered the transfer reveal a lower willingness to pay, and we show that this is in line with theoretical predictions.

Suggested Citation

  • Almås, Ingvild & Armand, Alex & Attanasio, Orazio & Carneiro, Pedro, 2016. "Measuring and Changing Control: Women's Empowerment and Targeted Transfers," IZA Discussion Papers 9779, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9779
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    empowerment; cash transfers; intra-household; gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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