The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program

Large-scale government cash transfer programs have become an important element of social protection and poverty reduction strategies throughout the developing world. Pakistan is no exception; in 2008, Pakistan established the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) as an unconditional cash transfer ta...

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Autores principales: Ambler, Kate, de Brauw, Alan
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: World Bank 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148457
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author Ambler, Kate
de Brauw, Alan
author_browse Ambler, Kate
de Brauw, Alan
author_facet Ambler, Kate
de Brauw, Alan
author_sort Ambler, Kate
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Large-scale government cash transfer programs have become an important element of social protection and poverty reduction strategies throughout the developing world. Pakistan is no exception; in 2008, Pakistan established the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) as an unconditional cash transfer targeted at the poorest of the poor. The primary goal of the BISP program is to provide the poorest households in Pakistan with unconditional transfers in order to improve their consumption and investments in children. To attain this goal, it is believed important that the transfers are provided directly to women to ensure the funds are spent as intended. Beyond changes in consumption and investment, directing these transfers to women can also serve to empower women by increasing household resources under their control. We analyze the impacts of Pakistan’s BISP program on women’s decision-making power within households using data collected between 2011 and 2013 as the program was rolling out. Using fuzzy regression discontinuity methods to statistically identify impacts, the BISP transfer is found to have substantial, positive impacts on some variables measuring women’s decision-making power and empowerment.
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spelling CGSpace1484572025-04-08T18:30:59Z The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan gender women's empowerment regression analysis investment households empowerment children decision making cash transfers poverty women Large-scale government cash transfer programs have become an important element of social protection and poverty reduction strategies throughout the developing world. Pakistan is no exception; in 2008, Pakistan established the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) as an unconditional cash transfer targeted at the poorest of the poor. The primary goal of the BISP program is to provide the poorest households in Pakistan with unconditional transfers in order to improve their consumption and investments in children. To attain this goal, it is believed important that the transfers are provided directly to women to ensure the funds are spent as intended. Beyond changes in consumption and investment, directing these transfers to women can also serve to empower women by increasing household resources under their control. We analyze the impacts of Pakistan’s BISP program on women’s decision-making power within households using data collected between 2011 and 2013 as the program was rolling out. Using fuzzy regression discontinuity methods to statistically identify impacts, the BISP transfer is found to have substantial, positive impacts on some variables measuring women’s decision-making power and empowerment. 2017 2024-06-21T09:24:44Z 2024-06-21T09:24:44Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148457 en Open Access World Bank Ambler, Kate and de Brauw, Alan. 2017. The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program. Social Protection and Labor Discussion Paper 1702. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. https://hdl.handle.net/10986/26272
spellingShingle gender
women's empowerment
regression analysis
investment
households
empowerment
children
decision making
cash transfers
poverty
women
Ambler, Kate
de Brauw, Alan
The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program
title The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program
title_full The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program
title_fullStr The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program
title_full_unstemmed The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program
title_short The impacts of cash transfers on women’s empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP program
title_sort impacts of cash transfers on women s empowerment learning from pakistan s bisp program
topic gender
women's empowerment
regression analysis
investment
households
empowerment
children
decision making
cash transfers
poverty
women
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148457
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