Discussion paper

DP6195 Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

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.

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Citation

Karlan, D, N Ashraf and W Yin (2007), ‘DP6195 Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 6195. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp6195