Cash Transfers and Role Models: Impacts on Women’s Empowerment in Rural Kenya by Mahreen Mahmud

Join us for this week's event in the Experimental Economics Seminar Series, Autumn Term 2023

Join Mahreen Mahmud from the Department of Economics, University of Exeter as they present their research on Cash Transfers and Role Models: Impacts on Women’s Empowerment in Rural Kenya. 

Abstract

Cash and asset transfer programs are widely used and improve household consumption and asset wealth. However, they have mixed effects on women’s empowerment. In a four-arm field experiment with 3,000 rural Kenyan women, we study the effect of combining unconditional lump-sum cash transfers with a workshop to raise women’s aspirations via exposure to role models and help them plan to achieve them. We find that the workshop + transfer increases women’s share of household resources and reduces intimate partner violence compared to cash alone. Our study highlights potential gains from combining interventions targeting economic and psychological barriers to women’s empowerment.

This seminar will be held in the Economics Common Room on Wednesday 11 October 2023 at 11.00am. This event is open to all levels of study and is also open to the public. To register your place, please contact the seminar organisers.

This event is part of the Experimental Economics Research Seminar Series.