Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India

Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India

Electrification has been shown to accelerate opportunities for women by moving them into more productive activities, but whether improvements in economic outcomes also change gender norms and practices within the household remains unclear. This pap...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Samad, Hussain, Zhang, Fan
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
ELECTRIFICATION
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
INTRA-HOUSEHOLD BARGAINING
GENDER NORMS
MOBILITY
EMPLOYMENT
EDUCATION
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/112131553786901131/Electrification-and-Womens-Empowerment-Evidence-from-Rural-India
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31491
id okr-10986-31491
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-314912022-09-19T12:17:04Z Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India Samad, Hussain Zhang, Fan ELECTRIFICATION RURAL ELECTRIFICATION WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT INTRA-HOUSEHOLD BARGAINING GENDER NORMS MOBILITY EMPLOYMENT EDUCATION Electrification has been shown to accelerate opportunities for women by moving them into more productive activities, but whether improvements in economic outcomes also change gender norms and practices within the household remains unclear. This paper investigates the causal link between electricity access and women's empowerment, using a large gender-disaggregated data set on India. Empowerment is measured by women's decision-making ability, mobility, financial autonomy, reproductive freedom, and social participation. Using propensity score matching, the study finds that electrification enhances all measures of women's empowerment and is associated with an 11-percentage point increase in the overall empowerment index. Employment and education are identified as the two most important causal channels through which electrification enables empowerment. 2019-04-03T15:36:00Z 2019-04-03T15:36:00Z 2019-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/112131553786901131/Electrification-and-Womens-Empowerment-Evidence-from-Rural-India http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31491 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8796 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia India
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ELECTRIFICATION
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
INTRA-HOUSEHOLD BARGAINING
GENDER NORMS
MOBILITY
EMPLOYMENT
EDUCATION
spellingShingle ELECTRIFICATION
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
INTRA-HOUSEHOLD BARGAINING
GENDER NORMS
MOBILITY
EMPLOYMENT
EDUCATION
Samad, Hussain
Zhang, Fan
Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India
geographic_facet South Asia
India
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8796
description Electrification has been shown to accelerate opportunities for women by moving them into more productive activities, but whether improvements in economic outcomes also change gender norms and practices within the household remains unclear. This paper investigates the causal link between electricity access and women's empowerment, using a large gender-disaggregated data set on India. Empowerment is measured by women's decision-making ability, mobility, financial autonomy, reproductive freedom, and social participation. Using propensity score matching, the study finds that electrification enhances all measures of women's empowerment and is associated with an 11-percentage point increase in the overall empowerment index. Employment and education are identified as the two most important causal channels through which electrification enables empowerment.
format Working Paper
author Samad, Hussain
Zhang, Fan
author_facet Samad, Hussain
Zhang, Fan
author_sort Samad, Hussain
title Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India
title_short Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India
title_full Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India
title_fullStr Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India
title_full_unstemmed Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India
title_sort electrification and women's empowerment : evidence from rural india
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/112131553786901131/Electrification-and-Womens-Empowerment-Evidence-from-Rural-India
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31491
_version_ 1764474445849690112

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