Ingvild Almås, Stockholm University

The Effect of Gender-Targeted Transfers: Experimental Evidence from India

Abstract

Women are the primary recipients of many welfare programs around the world. This gendered targeting is backed by claims that women make better consumption choices than men, but the empirical evidence is scarce. We report from an experiment designed to study the effect of such gendered targeting: in each household, weekly cash transfers were randomly allocated to a man or a woman. We combine the randomized transfers with detailed financial diaries to measure the households' economic decisions. Our precise estimates suggest no difference in consumption, saving or nutrition in households with female rather than male recipients.

Ingvild Almås is a Professor of Economics, Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES), Stockholm University. She obtained her PhD from Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) in 2008, and was promoted full professor at the same institution in 2017. Her main research focuses on gaining a better understanding of economic inequalities. She is a PI for development research at FAIR center of excellence, NHH, and she is an International Research Fellow at Institute for Fiscal Studies, London.

You can read more about Ingvild Almås here

CEBI contact: Mette Gørtz