days of employment for each RMG member. This equates to just over four days of work per month. The RMG members were paid wages of around 60,000 kip/day (US$7.3/day), resulting in a total average income of around $550 per RMG member over the implementation period. Since this was a part-time activity, the expectation was that it provided supplementary income for participants. Indeed, the RMG payment corresponds to 40% of household income of waitlisted women. This is a meaningful increase in income: for comparison, conditional cash transfers received by the poorest decile in eight Latin American countries are in the range of 7.8% to 33.6% of household income (Amarante and Brun 2018).

# 4. Data

Baseline data was collected between September and October 2018, before any salary payments were made. Women knew whether they were selected to be a part of a road maintenance group at the time of baseline data collection and had started work. We were able to interview 333 treatment households and women, and 813 control households and women. Not all women who were selected participated in the survey (6 treated households, 34 control households). We discuss attrition from selection to baseline data collection below. The baseline data allowed us to verify that treated and control samples are balanced across many characteristics. However, there are relatively fewer Hmong-Iumien women in the treated sample at baseline, and control group households are smaller and have somewhat higher monthly income<sup>7</sup> (Table A1 8). We control for these baseline characteristics in our estimates to account for potential bias from imbalance.

Endline data collection took place in December 2019 and January 2020, 18 months after the program started and the end of the contract period. At endline, we were able to interview 323 treated households and 776 control households. There was attrition of 47 households (4 percent): 10 treated, 37 control.

At both baseline and endline, we administered a household questionnaire to the person most knowledgeable about household matters, and an individual questionnaire to women enrolled as RMG and waitlist (control group) members. GBV experience was measured only at endline because we did not have enough time to pass a supplemental national ethics review for more sensitive data collection before the baseline survey.<sup>9</sup> A special audio-computer self-interviewing (ACASI) module was developed for administration of GBV questions in order to protect participants’ privacy.<sup>10</sup> Our team specifically designed

> 7 The baseline data collection took place after the work had started but before the first monthly payment had been made. It is plausible that we observe lower incomes in the treatment group because RMG women had to give up some other work in order to engage in RMGs.

> 8 Tables starting with A are in the Online Appendix.

> 9 We passed external IRB with HML IRB Research & Ethics and Lao PDR ethics review for both baseline and endline data collection.

> 10 It is common for neighbors, relatives, other family members to stop by when interviews are conducted. Given construction of the dwellings (very thin walls), even being in a closed room did not guarantee complete privacy, as one could hear the questions from outside or adjacent rooms.

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