FR1.2: Valuing control over income and workload: A field experiment in Rwanda

Abstract

Agricultural development programs often aim to enhance women's control over income, but as an unintended negative consequence, these programs may increase women's already heavy work burden. By means of a lab-in-the-field experiment with 1,000 men and women in rural Rwanda, we elicit men's and women's valuations of control over income, changes in workload, and trade-offs between them. Survey data indicate that women in this setting are less empowered than men. Control over the use of income contributes less to disempowerment than high workloads. Moreover, in the experiment, we find that women are willing to sacrifice more household income to gain control over income than their husbands, but both women and men are willing to forgo even more personal and household income with the aim of reducing their workload. This indicates that in the setting where the experiment was conducted, agricultural development programs that introduce time-saving practices and technologies have potentially greater welfare impacts for both women and men than programs increasing women's control over monetary resources.