Accelerating the Impact of Financial Literacy Training Programmes on Household Consumption by Empowering Women
32 Pages Posted: 10 Mar 2021
Date Written: February 2, 2021
Abstract
This study examines the impact of a joint financial literacy and women’s empowerment training programme on household consumption as a welfare indicator. Using data collected from a randomised controlled trial conducted in Ghana, we tested for baseline balance and applied ordinary least squares to estimate endline impact. Our findings revealed that the impact of financial literacy on household consumption is influenced by the design and delivery of the programme. A weaker impact is achieved when financial literacy training is offered alone. The ensuing stronger short-term impact of financial literacy training on household consumption is achieved through the inclusion of a women’s empowerment module. The joint delivery of the programme significantly improved household consumption for female-beneficiary and younger households. We advocate the inclusion of women’s empowerment training in financial literacy training programmes to accelerate impact on household welfare through increased household consumption
Keywords: Financial Literacy; Consumption; Women’s Empowerment; Poverty; Ghana
JEL Classification: C13, C93, D11, D12, I22
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