Female empowerment: impact of a commitment savings product in the Philippines

Arbeitspapier

Female empowerment” has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to an individually-held commitment savings product leads to an increase in female decision-making power within the household. We find positive impacts, particularly for women who have below median decision-making power in the baseline, and we find this leads to a shift towards female-oriented durables goods purchased in the household.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Center Discussion Paper ; No. 949

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis ; Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡ ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development ; Economic Development: Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
• Subject: Savings ; microfinance ; female empowerment ; household decision making ; commitment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ashraf, Nava ; Karlan, Dean S. ; Yin, Wesley
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Yale University, Economic Growth Center
• (where): New Haven, CT
• (when): 2006

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/26989
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:46 AM CET