Economic Development and Cultural Change · 2006 · 523 citations · 12 references
Social SciencesEconomicsGender StudiesRural DevelopmentRural SociologyWomen's StudiesGender EqualityHousehold EconomicsHousehold Financial Decision-makingMicrofinanceMicrofinance InstitutionsRural FinanceGender Empowerment EffectsMicrofinance In Rural AreasRural Women's EmpowermentUnobserved ConfoundingUnobserved HeterogeneityUnobserved Individual EffectsWomen EmpowermentWomen's Access To Credit
These credit programs uniquely allow the study of gender‑specific resource effects on intrahousehold allocations by permitting only one adult per household to participate. The article investigates how men’s and women’s participation in micro‑credit programs influences various indicators of women’s empowerment using a rural Bangladesh survey. Empowerment is modeled as a latent variable derived from women’s autonomy and decision‑making responses, and the study employs endogeneity‑robust empirical methods to assess the impact of micro‑credit participation. Women’s participation in micro‑credit programs increases empowerment, while male participation generally reduces it.
This article examines the effects of men’s and women’s participation in micro credit programs on various indicators of women’s empowerment using data from a special survey carried out in rural Bangladesh. These credit programs are well suited to studying how gender‐specific resources alter intrahousehold allocations because they induce differential participation by gender through the requirement that only one adult member per household can participate in any micro credit program. Empowerment is formalized as an unobserved latent variable reflecting common components of qualitative responses to a large set of questions pertaining to women’s autonomy and decision‐making power. The empirical methods are attentive to various sources of endogeneity, and the results are consistent with the view that women’s participation in micro credit programs helps to increase women’s empowerment. The effects of male credit on women’s empowerment were generally negative.
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