Women in Pakistan are severely disadvantaged in various socio-economic indicators both overall as well as relative to men. This has welfare and other implications as women's earnings, agency, and human capital has multiplier effects especially for children. With this in mind, Pakistan's flagship anti-poverty program, the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), has been designed to transfer money to women. This is not only expected to improve women's own outcomes, but to alter household dynamics, transforming the lives of all members within the household. Using the structure of the BISP program, this study matches a plausible control group to recipient households within the PSLM and MICS surveys to identify whether the cash transfer has improved outcomes for women. A variety of socio-economic outcomes ranging from labor market variables to time-saving asset ownership, decision-making and technology use as well as stance on domestic abuse are examined.

Dr. Hadia Majid is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Lahore University of Management Sciences. Her research interests include economics of the household, parental decision-making, and human capital acquisition. Her previous work evaluates the Mexican conditional cash transfer program at the intra-household level. She has also examined the role of parental perceptions of child quality on educational outcomes in rural Punjab.