Labor Market Opportunities and Lives of Women in Rural India: Evidence from an Experimental Study

This project studies the impacts of labor market opportunities on women’s lives in rural India. Specifically, we used a randomized control trial to test whether and how improved employment opportunities could affect the labor force participation, family decision, and the bargaining power of women in rural India.

Morsel collected primary data during November 6, 2017, to August 24, 2018, in 20 blocks of two states, Karnataka (17 blocks) and Andhra Pradesh (3 Blocks) in 3 different phases. In the first phase, Morsel collected demographic characteristics of all the villages in 20 blocks using PRA technique. In the second phase, Morsel conducted the listing exercise in selected villages on 20 blocks. In the third and last phase of baseline data collection field team surveyed all the HH members of selected Households in the selected villages using different modules; HH Head, Female of the HH, Food experiment with the main cook of the HH, Time Use module with all the family members, Psychometric survey and Ravens’ test with all the female members above 15 years old in the HH and one Village Survey to get the sense of business opportunities available in the village.