Female Micro-Entrepreneurship and Child Development

How far can a large economic push shift the power balance inside a household? Does it lower or perhaps increase women’s ideal number of children, and does this translate into actual fertility? This study expands data collection on an existing randomized evaluation in Malawi (from N=600 to 1,200) to study the two-year follow-up impacts of an ultra-poor graduation program (UPG) aimed at female subsistence farmers to start micro-enterprises.

In preliminary results from a one-year follow-up of the first half of the sample, the researchers find that the share of pregnant women doubled in the treatment group (p<0.05) and their ideal number of children has increased (not significant). While women indicate greater agency across most domains of household bargaining (not significant), the domain closest to significance shows that women feel greater pressure from their husbands to stop using contraceptives (p≈0.12). This is despite the program coming with an individualized coaching program that promotes their use. All treated women have started businesses, but nearly all of them in sectors compatible with their unchanged childcare burden. Researchers will investigate whether this mitigates their motherhood penalty and allows their labor force participation to be sustained, despite a secular trend away from Malawi’s somewhat unique matrilocality and the position of strength that it afforded women. Tentatively, researchers find substantial height and weight gains among children under five (p≈0.13). The preliminary results point to the UPG having similar economic impacts to previously evaluated ones, suggesting that these results (if they persist) might be generalizable.