Women’s Work and Household Status Production

This project will investigate the role of status concerns in inhibiting women’s participation in the labor market in India. Although a number of studies have proposed that not allowing women to work for pay may serve as a signal of wealth, the understanding of exactly how women’s work affects household status is limited. Researchers will test the hypothesis that some households are reluctant to allow women to work outside the village, even when they are not concerned about commuting safety or women’s time burden, because such behavior signals financial distress and invites the “judgment of poverty.”  

For that, researchers will employ an incentive-compatible choice experiment. Households will be presented with actual opportunities for paid jobs or training programs that vary across key dimensions, such as location (inside the house, inside the village, or outside the village), observability of work, approval of jobs by network members, and the payment amount. By comparing household responses to paid job offers as opposed to training offers—which do not signal that a family is in need of money—researchers can distinguish the impact of status concerns.

In addition, the research team aims to run a pilot test of a coordination intervention designed to alleviate status concerns and increase job offer take-up.