Motivation
Digital financial services (DFS) are widely credited with enhancing women’s empowerment by increasing control over financial resources. Yet the mechanisms through which DFS produces these gains remain poorly understood. This study focuses on three plausible pathways—financial privacy, earmarking, and transaction costs—that may shape women’s financial autonomy and decision-making. Understanding these channels is particularly important in Tanzania, where mobile money use is expanding rapidly alongside microfinance.
Objective
The study examines whether and through which mechanisms DFS enhances women’s empowerment using a lab-in-the-field experiment with 240 married couples. The experimental design varies payment modality (cash versus mobile money), privacy of financial decisions (public versus private), and earmarking of funds (labelled versus unlabelled cash). Participants engage in a series of investment games that reveal preferences for privacy, concealment, and control over resources, complemented by post-experiment surveys on perceptions of DFS. This design allows the study to isolate causal effects of privacy, earmarking, and transaction costs on financial behavior and intra-household dynamics, while also examining gender differences in preferences and responses to DFS.
Proposed Impact
By identifying the mechanisms through which DFS influences women’s empowerment, this study will generate actionable insights for policymakers, implementers, and financial service providers. Findings will inform the design of DFS products and programs that better align with women’s needs, particularly around privacy and control. Additionally, results will directly support BRAC Tanzania’s efforts to integrate mobile money into microfinance operations and financial literacy initiatives.
Photo credit: Ali Mkumbwa on Unsplash
