Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda
We conduct a randomized controlled trial to test a novel intervention for increasing women’s empowerment in Uganda. The intervention includes a within-household transfer of a productive asset, which has a lower cost than an external transfer. We find that transferring control of some of the househol...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176264 |
| _version_ | 1855529768391278592 |
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| author | Ambler, Kate Jones, Kelly M. O’Sullivan, Michael |
| author_browse | Ambler, Kate Jones, Kelly M. O’Sullivan, Michael |
| author_facet | Ambler, Kate Jones, Kelly M. O’Sullivan, Michael |
| author_sort | Ambler, Kate |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | We conduct a randomized controlled trial to test a novel intervention for increasing women’s empowerment in Uganda. The intervention includes a within-household transfer of a productive asset, which has a lower cost than an external transfer. We find that transferring control of some of the household’s sugarcane to the wife significantly increases her access to resources and decision-making power. We also document increases in women’s empowerment arising from a cross-randomized couples’ workshop that improved women’s self-concept and shifted beliefs in gender equality. We find no additional impacts from combining the two interventions. Importantly, neither intervention harms the household’s productivity or husbands’ welfare. In fact, men (and women) report higher marital quality and life satisfaction as a result. However, despite increasing women’s empowerment we find no evidence that the interventions increased measured household investment in food security, child health, or education. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace176264 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| publisherStr | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1762642025-10-26T13:02:36Z Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda Ambler, Kate Jones, Kelly M. O’Sullivan, Michael women's empowerment households assets sugar cane workshops gender equality gender randomized controlled trials We conduct a randomized controlled trial to test a novel intervention for increasing women’s empowerment in Uganda. The intervention includes a within-household transfer of a productive asset, which has a lower cost than an external transfer. We find that transferring control of some of the household’s sugarcane to the wife significantly increases her access to resources and decision-making power. We also document increases in women’s empowerment arising from a cross-randomized couples’ workshop that improved women’s self-concept and shifted beliefs in gender equality. We find no additional impacts from combining the two interventions. Importantly, neither intervention harms the household’s productivity or husbands’ welfare. In fact, men (and women) report higher marital quality and life satisfaction as a result. However, despite increasing women’s empowerment we find no evidence that the interventions increased measured household investment in food security, child health, or education. 2026-01 2025-08-29T20:12:57Z 2025-08-29T20:12:57Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176264 en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105224 https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20221052 https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/14861 Open Access Elsevier Ambler, Kate; Jones, Kelly M.; and O’Sullivan, Michael. 2026. Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda. Journal of Development Economics 178(January 2026): 103575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103575 |
| spellingShingle | women's empowerment households assets sugar cane workshops gender equality gender randomized controlled trials Ambler, Kate Jones, Kelly M. O’Sullivan, Michael Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda |
| title | Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda |
| title_full | Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda |
| title_fullStr | Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda |
| title_short | Increasing women’s empowerment: Evaluating two interventions in Uganda |
| title_sort | increasing women s empowerment evaluating two interventions in uganda |
| topic | women's empowerment households assets sugar cane workshops gender equality gender randomized controlled trials |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176264 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT amblerkate increasingwomensempowermentevaluatingtwointerventionsinuganda AT joneskellym increasingwomensempowermentevaluatingtwointerventionsinuganda AT osullivanmichael increasingwomensempowermentevaluatingtwointerventionsinuganda |