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Measuring the effect of a community-level program on women's empowerment outcomes : evidence from India

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  • Kandpal, Eeshani
  • Baylis, Kathy
  • Arends-Kuenning, Mary

Abstract

This paper uses primary data from rural north India to show that participation in a community-level female empowerment program significantly increases access to employment, physical mobility, and political participation. The program provides support groups, literacy camps, adult education classes, and vocational training for rural women in several states of India; the data are from Uttarakhand. The paper uses instrumental variables and truncation-corrected matching on primary data to disentangle the program's mechanisms, separately considering its effect on women who work, and those who do not work but whose reservation wage is increased by participation. The analysis also finds significant spillover effects on non-participants relative to women in untreated districts. It finds consistent estimates for average treatment and intent to treat effects

Suggested Citation

  • Kandpal, Eeshani & Baylis, Kathy & Arends-Kuenning, Mary, 2013. "Measuring the effect of a community-level program on women's empowerment outcomes : evidence from India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6399, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6399
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Annemie Maertens & Christopher B. Barrett, 2013. "Measuring Social Networks' Effects on Agricultural Technology Adoption," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 95(2), pages 353-359.
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    Cited by:

    1. Marjorie Chinen & Thomas de Hoop & Lorena Alcázar & María Balarin & Josh Sennett, 2017. "Vocational and business training to improve women's labour market outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-195.
    2. Irfan Ahmad Baig & Zarmina Batool & Asghar Ali & Sajjad Ahmad Baig & Muhammad Hashim & Muhammad Zia-ur-Rehman, 2018. "Impact of women empowerment on rural development in Southern Punjab, Pakistan," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1861-1872, July.
    3. Sarah Baird & Ephraim Chirwa & Jacobus de Hoop & Berk Özler, 2014. "Girl Power: Cash Transfers and Adolescent Welfare: Evidence from a Cluster-Randomized Experiment in Malawi," NBER Chapters, in: African Successes, Volume II: Human Capital, pages 139-164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Srimoyee Datta & Tarak Nath Sahu, 2017. "An Empirical Study on the Impact of Microfinance on Women Empowerment: Evidence from West Bengal," Indian Journal of Commerce and Management Studies, Educational Research Multimedia & Publications,India, vol. 8(3), pages 53-62, September.
    5. Kandpal, Eeshani & Baylis, Kathy, 2019. "The social lives of married women: Peer effects in female autonomy and investments in children," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 26-43.
    6. Prennushi, G. & Gupta, A., 2014. "Women's empowerment and socio-economic outcomes : impacts of the Andhra Pradesh rural poverty reduction program," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6841, The World Bank.

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