Back to History Current Version

Empowering Women through Public Policy: Can Gender-Sensitive Policy Reform to a Major Public Works Program Encourage Female Work and Improve Women's Wellbeing?

Last registered on July 09, 2014

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowering Women through Public Policy: Can Gender-Sensitive Policy Reform to a Major Public Works Program Encourage Female Work and Improve Women's Wellbeing?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000115
First published
July 09, 2014, 9:09 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Yale University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
MIT
PI Affiliation
Dartmouth University
PI Affiliation
Duke University
PI Affiliation
Harvard Kennedy School

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2013-11-20
End date
2014-09-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The proposed research project uses a randomized control trial design to test whether a gender-sensitive policy reform to India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) can encourage female participation and improve women’s socio-economic wellbeing. The policy reform proposes that all women have their NREGS wages deposited into individual bank accounts, instead of the status quo where wages are paid into a household bank account, typically owned by the male head. This reform has been proposed for India-wide rollout, but its impact on female welfare is theoretically ambiguous: the policy may improve women’s welfare if it increases women’s standing in the household or boosts financial empowerment. Alternatively, it could have unintended negative consequences such as increased domestic violence. The results from the field experiment will be used to estimate the net impact of this important policy change, and help Indian policymakers increase financial access for women in a gender-sensitive manner. Our primary outcomes of interest include a broad range of measures of female welfare and socioeconomic status, as well as measures of corruption and leakage within the NREGS system. The multi-treatment arm design of the research study will help provide evidence on the causal pathways that mediate the policy’s effect. Our design also includes a supplementary intervention designed to test whether additional training on how to use new banking technologies helps women benefit from these technologies.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Field, Erica et al. 2014. "Empowering Women through Public Policy: Can Gender-Sensitive Policy Reform to a Major Public Works Program Encourage Female Work and Improve Women's Wellbeing?." AEA RCT Registry. July 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.115-1.0
Former Citation
Field, Erica et al. 2014. "Empowering Women through Public Policy: Can Gender-Sensitive Policy Reform to a Major Public Works Program Encourage Female Work and Improve Women's Wellbeing?." AEA RCT Registry. July 09. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/115/history/2120
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2014-01-20
Intervention End Date
2014-03-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
household income, consumption, labor supply, investments, household conflict, and various measures of female empowerment (mental and physical health, mobility constraints, gender-related attitudes, and decision-making power)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In randomly selected groups of villages known as Gram Panchayats (GPs), we will support the government's initiative to open bank accounts for female NREGS workers who do not have an account in their own names. In another set of randomly selected GPs, women NREGS workers will open individual bank accounts, and their NREGS wages will be paid into the individual accounts. A cross-cutting intervention will randomize households within the control and treatment arms of the base design to receive bi-weekly information about NREGS wage payments to household members. In one treatment arm, individuals will receive information about their own NREGS wage payments. In the other treatment arm, households will receive information on wage payments from NREGS to all household members.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Randomization at GP level for basic design; randomization at household level for cross-cutting information intervention
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
150 Gram Panchayats
Sample size: planned number of observations
7500 households
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50 Gram Panchayats control, 50 Gram Panchayats T1, and 50 Gram Panchayats T2
Information intervention: 2500 households control, 2500 households information intervention 1, 2500 households information intervention 2
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Institute for Financial Management and Research Human Subjects Committee
IRB Approval Date
2013-10-22
IRB Approval Number
IRB00007107
IRB Name
Harvard Human Research Protection Program
IRB Approval Date
2013-10-13
IRB Approval Number
IRB13-1934
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents