Women’s Empowerment and Agricultural Productivity in

Bangladesh

Greg Seymour

PhD student

American University

Washington, DC

Linkages Between Empowerment and Agricultural Productivity

• Greater access to human capital

– Improved work capacity

– Knowledge of modern agricultural science and technology

• Greater access to physical capital

– Increased control over productive resources

– Stronger incentives to invest in land

0 Input, X

Output, Y

Production frontier, Y=f(X)

C

A

Male-managed farms

Female-managed farms

B

Measuring Agricultural Productivity

Technical efficiency

Ratio of actual output to

maximum

technologically feasible

output

Existing Evidence• Gender productivity gaps do exist– Africa

• Holden et al. (2001); Tiruneh and Verkuijl (2001); Bezabih and Holden (2006); Goldstein and Udry (2008)

– Bangladesh• Asadullah and Rahman (2009)

• Gender productivity gaps do not exist– Africa

• Horrell and Krishnan (2007); Githinji et al. (2011);, Alene et al. (2008); Peterman et al. (2011); Oladeebo and Fajuyigbe (2007); Kinkingninhoun-Medagbe et al. (2010); Ndlovu et al. (2014)

– Bangladesh• Rahman (2010)

• Lack of consensus may stem from methodological challenges

How to identify women’s role in farm management? • Most existing studies

distinguish between male- and female-managed farms based on the sex of the household head.

0%2%4%6%8%10%12%14%

Women’s plot ownership and participation in decision-

making in Bangladesh

Source: 2011-2012 BIHS, Author’s calculations

Primary Objective• Can differences in

technical efficiency be explained by women’s empowerment?

– Does this relationship depend on women’s role in farm management?

0 Input, X

Output, Y

Production frontier, Y=f(X)

C

A

Male-managed farms

Female-managed farms

B

Data• 2011-2012 Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey

(BIHS)

– Conducted by IFPRI and DATA

• Only households engaged in crop agriculture

– 3,369 (51.8%) of 6,503 households

– 4,797 plots of land

– 3 crop seasons

• Total sample size: 7,387 plot-level, season-specific observations

Primary Variables of Interest • Indicators of women’s empowerment

– Empowerment score

– Empowerment gap

– Group membership

– Speaking in public

• Indicators of women’s role in farm management

– Socially recognized ownership

– Legally recognized ownership

– Participation in decision-making

ResultsIs technical efficiency associated with women’s

empowerment?• Associated with higher levels of technical efficiency

– Group membership

• No statistically significant association

– Empowerment score

– Speaking in public

– Empowerment gap

ResultsIs technical efficiency associated with women’s

role in farm management?• Associated with lower levels of technical efficiency

– Legally recognized ownership

• No statistically significant association

– Socially recognized ownership

– Participation in decision-making

• No interaction between group membership and women’s role in farm management

Conclusions and Policy Implications

• Pattern of gender gaps speaks to the presence of unobservable factors that affect women only when they hold the title to a plot of land

– Linkages between credit and land markets?

• Women’s empowerment is predicted to increase technical efficiency of all plots operated by the household

– May indicate positive spillover effects to other household members from investment in groups and social relationships

Thank you!