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Banning the bottle, shifting the balance: Impact of Reduced Alcohol Consumption on Women's Agency

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  • Mookerjee, Mehreen
  • Ojha, Manini
  • Roy, Sanket
  • Yadav, Kartik

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between alcohol consumption and women's empowerment. Drawing on two rounds of nationally representative NFHS data from India and employing a difference-in-differences strategy, we show that a sharp decline in alcohol availability due to an alcohol prohibition policy, led to significant gains in women's agency. Women report greater decision-making power in health care, large household purchases, family visits, and the use of husbands' earnings, with effects ranging from 11.2 to 14.2 percentage points. We also find improvements in women's mobility and reductions in barriers to seeking medical care. A key mechanism appears to be a reduction in husbands' alcohol consumption, accompanied by a decline in reported control issues. Our results are robust across alternative estimation strategies, outcome definitions, placebo and falsification tests, and alternative treatment-control specifications. Heterogeneity analysis indicates particularly strong effects for rural, poorer, and socially disadvantaged women, underscoring the potential of alcohol control policies to enhance women's empowerment in patriarchal contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Mookerjee, Mehreen & Ojha, Manini & Roy, Sanket & Yadav, Kartik, 2025. "Banning the bottle, shifting the balance: Impact of Reduced Alcohol Consumption on Women's Agency," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1662, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1662
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    JEL classification:

    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

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