The Power of Persuasion: Causal Effects of Household Communication on Women's Employment

In many economic settings, agents lack decision rights but provide input. Intra-household decision-making in contexts with restrictive gender norms is one important example; wives often lack final say over decisions but still give input. Their ability to communicate persuasively while providing input could sway decisions in their favor. We conduct a field experiment in rural India to test whether an effective communication training among married women impacts their labor supply, the most common topic of intra-household disagreement in the sample. The treatment shifted women's communication styles towards the techniques taught in the training. We find positive effects on labor supply and earnings but, consistent with theory, only for women who at baseline were more interested than their husbands in the women working. These effects persist to at least one year following the treatment, leading to a nearly 60% increase in earnings over this period. Mechanisms analyses suggest the changes in labor supply are not due to shifts in bargaining power but rather come from women changing their husbands' preferences about female employment.