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  • American Economic Review

On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms

By: Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, Rohini Pande, Erica Field and Charity Troyer Moore
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Abstract

Can increasing control over earnings incentivize a woman to work, and thereby influence norms around gender roles? We randomly varied whether rural Indian women received bank accounts, training in account use, and direct deposit of public sector wages into their own (versus husbands') accounts. Relative to the accounts only group, women who also received direct deposit and training worked more in public and private sector jobs. The private sector result suggests gender norms initially constrained female employment. Three years later, direct deposit and training broadly liberalized women's own work-related norms, and shifted perceptions of community norms.

Keywords

Social Norms; Employment; Wages; Gender; Banks and Banking; Perception

Citation

Rigol, Natalia, Simone Schaner, Rohini Pande, Erica Field, and Charity Troyer Moore. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms." American Economic Review 111, no. 7 (July 2021): 2342–2375.
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About The Author

Natalia Rigol

Entrepreneurial Management
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