Unconditional Cash Transfers and Women Empowerment: The Case of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in Pakistan
Abstract
This study has explored the welfare impact of Benazir Income Support Program’s (BISP) unconditional cash transfers on women empowerment. The program was initiated in 2011 by the government of Pakistan. The impact has been computed by using two follow up rounds i.e, 2011 & 2016 where baseline was carried out in 2011 and follow-up round was carried out in 2016. Regression Discontinuity Design approach was used to measure casual effects of the BISP cash transfers on women empowerment by selecting target and control groups based on proxy means test. The overtime impact have been estimated by employing Difference in Difference (DiD) model on panel households from 2011-2016. The study observed that BISP led to improve socio-economic wellbeing of the beneficiary women. It has brought improvement in women mobility and women participation in voting. The important contribution is an improvement in the aspect of socio-economic and political empowerment and women mobility across time and overtime. This showed continues support for longer period brought desired results.
Downloads
Article Analytics Summary
References
Adato, M., D. Mindek. & Quisumbing, A. (2000). The Impact of PROGRESA on Women’s Status and Intra-household Relations. Washington: International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ambler, K. (2016). Bargaining with Grandma: The Impact of the South African Pension on Household Decision Making. Journal of Human Resources. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.51.4.0314-6265R1
Ambler, K., & De Brauw. (2017). The Impacts of Cash Transfers on Women’s Empowerment: Learning from Pakistan’s BISP Program. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/26272
Attanasio, O., & Lechene, V. (2002). Testing of Income Pooling in Household Decisions. Review of Economic Dynamics 5(4): 720-748. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/redy.2002.0191
Baird, S., Ferreira, Chirwa, E., De Hooper, J., & Ozler, B. (2013). Girl Power: Cash Transfer and Adolescent Welfare. Evidence from a Cluster- Randomized Experiment in Malawi. NBER Working Paper 19479. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3386/w19479
Bandiera, O., N. Buehren., R. Burgess., M. Goldstein., S. Gulesci., I. Rasul. & M. Sulaiman (2012). “Empowering Adolescent Girls: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Uganda.” http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctpimr/research/ELA.pdf. Accessed on September 3, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/25529
Bari, F., Hooper, E., Kardar, S., Khan, S., Mohammed, I., & Sayeed, A. (2005). Conceptualizing a Social Protection Framework for Pakistan. Islamabad: Asian Development Bank. (Pakistan Poverty Assessment Update, Background Paper Series, Background Paper 4).
Barrientos, A., & Hulme, D. (2008). Social Protection for the Poor and the Poorest: Concepts, Policies and Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillon. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583092
De Brauw.A., Gilligan, Daniel.O. Hoddinott, J., & Shalini, R. (2014). The Impact of Bolsa Família on Women’s Decision Making Power. World Development 59: 487-504. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.02.003
Duflo, Esther. 2011. “Women’s Empowerment and Economic Development,” Journal of Economic Literature 50(4): 1051-1079 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.50.4.1051
______ (2003). Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old-Age Pensions and Intrahousehold Allocation in South Africa.”World Bank Economic Review, 17 (1), 1-25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhg013
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). (2015). The State of Food and Agriculture: Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization.
GoP, (2018). Government of Pakistan. Pakistan Economic Survey 2018-19. Finance Division Islamabad.
Handa S., Peterman, D., Seidenfed, D. & Tembo, G. (2015) Income transfer and maternal health: Evidence from a national randomized social cash transfer program in Zambia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3136
Handa, S., Amber, P., Ben, D., & Marco, S., (2009). Opening up Pandora's Box: The Effect of Gender Targeting and Conditionality on Household Spending Behavior in Mexico's Progresa Program. World Development 37(6): 1129-114. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.10.005
Hoddinott, J., & Haddad, L. (1995). Does female income share influence household expenditure? Evidence from Cote d’Ivoire. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 57(1), 77–96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.1995.tb00028.x
Holmes, R., & Jones, N. (2013). Gender and Social Protection in the Developing World: Beyond Mothers and Safety Nets. Zed Books. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350220300
Jamal, H. (2010). A Profile of Social Protection in Pakistan: An Appraisal of Empirical Literature. Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC). Journal of Development Research, 17(1), 8- 23.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09578810500066456 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09578810500066456
Jeejebhoy, Shireen, and Zeba A. Sathar. 2001. “Women’s Autonomy in India and Pakistan: The Influence of Religion and Region,” Population and Development Review 27(4): 687-712. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2001.00687.x
Kabeer, N. (2001). Reflections on the Measurement of Women’s Empowerment. In A. Sisask (Series Ed.), Sida studies no. 3: Discussing Women’s Empowerment: Theory and practice (pp. 17–57). Novum Grafiska AB: Stockholm, Sweden.
Kandpal, E., K. Baylis, & M. Arends-Kuenning. (2013). Measuring the Effect of a Community-level Program on Women’s Empowerment Outcomes: Evidence from India. The World Bank, Policy Research Working Paper No. 6399. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-6399
Lundberg, S., R. A. Pollak, & T. J. Wales (1997). Husbands and Wives Pool Their Resources? Evidence from the United Kingdom Child Benefit. Journal of Human Resources 32 (3), 463–80. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/146179
McCrary, Justin. 2008. “Manipulation of the Running Variable in the Regression Discontinuity Design: A Density Test,” Journal of Econometrics 142(2): 698-714. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2007.05.005
Natali, S., Handa S., Peterman, D., Seidenfed, D. & Tembo, G. (2016) Making Money Work: Unconditional cash transfer allow women to save and re-invest in rural Zambia. UNICEF. Office of Research- Innocenti Working Paper: WP-2016-02 UNICEF.
Nayyab, D., & Farooq, S. (2014). Effectiveness of Cash Transfer Programmes for Household Welfare in Pakistan: The Case of the Benazir Income Support Programme. Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE). Poverty and Social Dynamics Paper Series PSDPS.
OPM, (2016). Oxford Policy Management. Final Impact Evaluation of Unconditional Cash Transfer of BISP. Bisp.gov.pk
OPM, (2019). Data Submission Report for Final Impact Evaluation of Unconditional Cash Transfer of BISP. Bisp.gov.pk
Pitt, M. M., S. R. Khandker, & J. Cartwright. (2006). Empowering Women with Micro Finance: Evidence from Bangladesh. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 54 (4) 791-831. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/503580
Rangel, M. A. (2006). Alimony Rights and Intrahousehold Allocation of Resources: Evidence from Brazil. Economic Journal, 116 (513), 627-658. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2006.01104.x
Sabates, Wheeler, R., & Devereux, S. (2007). Social Protection for Transformation. IDS Bulletin 38 N. 3. Brighton, UK, IDS. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2007.tb00368.x
Schultz, T. Paul. (2004). School Subsidies for the Poor: Evaluating the Mexican PROGRESA Poverty Program, Journal of Development Economics 74(1): 199-250. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2003.12.009
Shehzad, I. (2011) Benazir Income Support Programme and its Impact on Women’s Empowerment
Shepherd A., R. Marcus., & A. Barrientos. (2004). Policy Paper on Social Protection. Department of International Development (DFID), UK
Siddiki, O.F., Homes, R., Jahan, F., & Chowdhury, F.S. (2014). How do Safety Nets Contribute to Social Inclusion in Bangladesh?
Thomas, D. (1990). Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: An Inferential Approach. Journal of Human Resources, 25(4), 635–664. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/145670
Thomas, D. (1997). Incomes, Expenditures and Health Outcomes: Evidence on Intra-household allocation.
United Nations. (1995). Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing Declaration.
World Bank, (2018). The State of Social safety Nets, World Bank Group, Washington DC
World Bank. (2015). The State of Social Safety Nets, World Bank Group, Washington DC
Yoong, J. Rabinovich, L. & Diepeveen, S. 2012. The impact of economic resource transfers to women versus men: a systematic review. Technical report. London, EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London.
Zuneira, S. Amjad., Usman M., & Farooq S. (2018) Targeting and Effectiveness of Social Safety Net Programmes: The Case of Zakat and BISP in Pakistan. Nust Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. Volume 4, Number 2.
Copyright (c) 2020 Tehmeena Iqbal, Ihtsham Ul Haq Padda, Shujaat Farooq
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
CSRC Publishing and JBSEE adhere to Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. The authors submitting and publishing in JBSEE agree to the copyright policy under creative common license 4.0 (Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International). Under this license, the authors published in JBSEE retain the copyright including publishing rights of their scholarly work and agree to let others remix, tweak, and build upon their work non-commercially. All other authors using the content of SBSEE are required to cite author(s) and publisher in their work. CSRC Publishing and JBSEE follow an Open Access Policy for copyright and licensing.
