Empowering Girls Triggers Their Brothers to Compete : Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Uganda
This brief has key messages through an experiment in Uganda, we find that empowering adolescent girls triggers a surge in their brothers’ competitiveness.Understanding preferences for competition is important because competitiveness is a predicto...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/978131476955244331/Empowering-girls-triggers-their-brothers-to-compete-Evidence-from-a-lab-in-the-field-experiment-in-Uganda http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25447 |
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okr-10986-254472021-05-25T10:54:37Z Empowering Girls Triggers Their Brothers to Compete : Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Uganda Buehren, Niklas Goldstein, Markus Leonard, Kenneth Montalvao, Joao Vasilaky, Kathryn adolescent girls sibling competition skills training empowerment WOMEN AND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT GENDER INNOVATION LAB AFRICA GENDER POLICY This brief has key messages through an experiment in Uganda, we find that empowering adolescent girls triggers a surge in their brothers’ competitiveness.Understanding preferences for competition is important because competitiveness is a predictor of labor market outcomes. To examine gender differences in preference for competition, the World Bank’s Africa GenderInnovation Lab, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Maryland and ColumbiaUniversity, launched a lab-in-the-field experiment within a randomized control trial of BRAC’scommunity-based Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program in Uganda.The ELA program simultaneously provided vocational and life skills training for girls aged 14 to 20. An impact evaluation of ELA showed that it empowered girls along economic and social dimensions: the program increased girls’ participation in self employment, improved girls’ control over their bodies, and shifted deep rooted gender norms held by adolescent girls in communities that participated in the program. Four years after the implementation began, we used a lab-in-the-field experiment to compare communities that received ELA with those that did not. The aim of this experiment was to test whether girl’s empowerment would have a direct impact on girls’ or boys’ competitiveness. To measure preferences for competition, we implemented the experimental protocol of Niederle and Vesterlund (2007). More specifically, participants were asked to select a compensation scheme before performing a simple task, from which we identified their taste to compete. They either chose to be paid according to a competitive tournament scheme or a non competitive piece-rate scheme. The experiment was designed to control for a host of factors such as individual differences in ability, overconfidence, risk aversion, and altruism. Our findings highlight the impact of gender equality on gender differences in competitiveness: when boys are faced with more empowered sisters, they increase their competitiveness. This suggests that the benefits of adolescent girls’ empowerment programs may spill over beyond the participating girls themselves to their brothers. More work needs to be done to understand if the changed behavior in brothers will have persistent effects on girls in the future. 2016-11-28T18:35:52Z 2016-11-28T18:35:52Z 2016-10 Brief http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/978131476955244331/Empowering-girls-triggers-their-brothers-to-compete-Evidence-from-a-lab-in-the-field-experiment-in-Uganda http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25447 English en_US Gender Innovation Lab Policy Brief;No. 18 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Brief Africa Uganda |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
adolescent girls sibling competition skills training empowerment WOMEN AND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT GENDER INNOVATION LAB AFRICA GENDER POLICY |
| spellingShingle |
adolescent girls sibling competition skills training empowerment WOMEN AND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT GENDER INNOVATION LAB AFRICA GENDER POLICY Buehren, Niklas Goldstein, Markus Leonard, Kenneth Montalvao, Joao Vasilaky, Kathryn Empowering Girls Triggers Their Brothers to Compete : Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Uganda |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Uganda |
| relation |
Gender Innovation Lab Policy Brief;No. 18 |
| description |
This brief has key messages through an
experiment in Uganda, we find that empowering adolescent
girls triggers a surge in their brothers’
competitiveness.Understanding preferences for competition is
important because competitiveness is a predictor of labor
market outcomes. To examine gender differences in preference
for competition, the World Bank’s Africa GenderInnovation
Lab, in collaboration with researchers from the University
of Maryland and ColumbiaUniversity, launched a
lab-in-the-field experiment within a randomized control
trial of BRAC’scommunity-based Empowerment and Livelihood
for Adolescents (ELA) program in Uganda.The ELA program
simultaneously provided vocational and life skills training
for girls aged 14 to 20. An impact evaluation of ELA showed
that it empowered girls along economic and social
dimensions: the program increased girls’ participation in
self employment, improved girls’ control over their bodies,
and shifted deep rooted gender norms held by adolescent
girls in communities that participated in the program. Four
years after the implementation began, we used a
lab-in-the-field experiment to compare communities that
received ELA with those that did not. The aim of this
experiment was to test whether girl’s empowerment would have
a direct impact on girls’ or boys’ competitiveness. To
measure preferences for competition, we implemented the
experimental protocol of Niederle and Vesterlund (2007).
More specifically, participants were asked to select a
compensation scheme before performing a simple task, from
which we identified their taste to compete. They either
chose to be paid according to a competitive tournament
scheme or a non competitive piece-rate scheme. The
experiment was designed to control for a host of factors
such as individual differences in ability, overconfidence,
risk aversion, and altruism. Our findings highlight the
impact of gender equality on gender differences in
competitiveness: when boys are faced with more empowered
sisters, they increase their competitiveness. This suggests
that the benefits of adolescent girls’ empowerment programs
may spill over beyond the participating girls themselves to
their brothers. More work needs to be done to understand if
the changed behavior in brothers will have persistent
effects on girls in the future. |
| format |
Brief |
| author |
Buehren, Niklas Goldstein, Markus Leonard, Kenneth Montalvao, Joao Vasilaky, Kathryn |
| author_facet |
Buehren, Niklas Goldstein, Markus Leonard, Kenneth Montalvao, Joao Vasilaky, Kathryn |
| author_sort |
Buehren, Niklas |
| title |
Empowering Girls Triggers Their Brothers to Compete : Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Uganda |
| title_short |
Empowering Girls Triggers Their Brothers to Compete : Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Uganda |
| title_full |
Empowering Girls Triggers Their Brothers to Compete : Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Uganda |
| title_fullStr |
Empowering Girls Triggers Their Brothers to Compete : Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Uganda |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Empowering Girls Triggers Their Brothers to Compete : Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Uganda |
| title_sort |
empowering girls triggers their brothers to compete : evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in uganda |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/978131476955244331/Empowering-girls-triggers-their-brothers-to-compete-Evidence-from-a-lab-in-the-field-experiment-in-Uganda http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25447 |
| _version_ |
1764459749787566080 |