This article uses a novel identification strategy to measure power in the household. Our strategy is to elicit women's willingness to pay to receive a cash transfer instead of their spouse receiving it. We selected participants from a sample of women who had already participated in a policy intervention in Macedonia offering poor households cash transfers conditional on having their children attending secondary school. The programme randomised transfers at the municipality level to either household heads (generally a male) or mothers. We show that women who were offered the transfer on average have stronger measured empowerment. Here, IV estimation confirms this result.
Authors
![Orazio Attanasio](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/Orazio_Attanasio.jpg?itok=Anbs4JXx)
Research Fellow
Orazio is an International Research Fellow at the IFS, a Professor at Yale and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
![Pedro Carneiro](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Pedro_Carneiro.jpg?itok=jj8qq067)
Research Fellow University College London
Pedro is a Professor of Economics at University College London and an economist in the IFS' Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (cemmap).
![Alex Armand](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Alex%20Armand.jpg?itok=tSPQ5C8F)
Research Fellow Nova School of Business and Economics
Alex is an IFS Research Fellow, an Associate Professor at Nova School of Business and Economics and a Research Affiliate at the CEPR.
![Ingvild Almås](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Ingvild%20Alm%C3%A5s.jpg?itok=yK7faCEQ)
Research Associate Stockholm University
Ingvild, a Research Fellow, is a Professor of Economics at the Stockholm University and Principal Investigator at the Centre of Excellence FAIR.
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1111/ecoj.12517
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Issue
- May 2018
Suggested citation
Almås, I et al. (2018). 'Measuring and changing control: women's empowerment and targeted transfers' (2018)
More from IFS
Understand this issue
![Female surgeon](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-04/female-surgeon-2.jpg?itok=DxoZaqMs)
If you can’t see it, you can’t be it: role models influence female junior doctors’ choice of medical specialty
24 April 2024
![Claudia Goldin](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2023-10/Claudia-Goldin.jpg?itok=E_BtbD3Z)
IFS contributor Claudia Goldin wins Nobel Prize in economics
9 October 2023
![Office foyer](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2023-08/Image-of-office-2.jpg?itok=NEgb4iN2)
Big firm, little firm: are differences between companies driving inequality and holding back growth?
30 August 2023
Policy analysis
![Payslip](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-03/Payslip%20F.jpg?itok=a5n7LpMj)
Recent trends in public sector pay
26 March 2024
![London](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/London.jpg?itok=zm-17Mfa)
The Conservatives and the Economy, 2010–24
3 June 2024
![London aerial view](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/London-aerial-view.jpg?itok=PTOLFicL)
A decade and a half of historically poor growth has taken its toll
3 June 2024
Academic research
![Working paper cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-06/WP202428-The-impact-of%20labour-demand-shocks-when-occupational-labour-supplies-are-heterogeneous.jpg?itok=Erq9-V9O)
The impact of labour demand shocks when occupational labour supplies are heterogeneous
28 June 2024
![Working Paper Cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-05/WP202423-Targeting-men-women-or-both-to-reduce-child-marriage_Page_01.jpg?itok=llhHsGnn)
Targeting men, women or both to reduce child marriage
28 May 2024
![Working Paper Cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-05/WP202422-Keeping-the-peace-while-getting-your-way-information-persuasion-and-intimate-partner-violence_Page_01.jpg?itok=JR-kAVHv)
Keeping the peace whilst getting your way: Information, persuasion and intimate partner violence
17 May 2024