have NREGS cards, only 26.6 percent of the untreated do. Predicted political participation is low for both groups; six percent of non-participants attend village council meetings, while 3.9 percent of the untreated do.<sup>14</sup> The fact that all predicted outcomes are higher for non-participants than for the untreated suggests that _Mahila Samakhya_ generates sizable spillover effects for non-participants living in treated districts. Figure 3 tells us that 78.2 percent of participants can leave the house without permission, 53.7 percent participate in the village council, and 79.7 percent have NREGS cards. Compared to the predicted values for the untreated, these outcomes represent significantly higher levels of empowerment for participants. Participants are 28.8 percent more likely to go out with permission, 49.8 percent more likely to participate in the village council, and 53.1 percent more likely to have access to NREGS cards. The 2SLS estimates are similar in magnitude and significance to the ITTs and suggest that any omitted age-variable trends do not substantially change our findings.

Since our sampling strategy relied on networks, we do not have a randomly-selected sample. Statewide data<sup>15</sup> on NREGS show that in 2010, women in untreated districts used an average of 35 percent of the person-days of work generated by NREGS, while in treated districts, they used an average of 41 percent, which is consistent with _Mahila Samakhya_ having a positive effect on access to outside employment and suggests that our estimates reflect statewide trends.

# **7.3 PSM Results**

Table 11 presents the two sets of treatment effects discussed above estimated using PSM: the first comparing non-participants to the untreated, and the other comparing participants to the untreated. The upper panel of the table shows the results comparing non-participants to the untreated. These results tell us that a non-participant is not significantly more empowered by simply living in a treated district. Without matching, only the NREGS cards variable is significantly different, with non-participants being significantly more likely to own NREGS cards. The decrease in significance in NREGS card ownership after matching highlights the importance of controlling for selection in to the program. Indeed, given that treated and untreated districts are very similar, these estimates tell us that _Mahila Samakhya_ does not target districts with particularly low (or high) levels of empowerment.

The lower panel of table 11 presents treatment effects of the program on participants. These results show that participants and untreated women have statistically equal spousal age ratios, suggesting that individuals do not choose to participate based on initial bargaining power. Hence, any differences in the other measures of empowerment likely stem from the effect of the program. Evidence suggests that the program significantly increases access to outside employment, as 80.9 percent of participants own NREGS identification cards, compared to only 14.4 percent of untreated, which translates to a difference of 66.5 percentage points. Participants are also significantly more likely to leave the house without permission. However, according to the matched results, participants are not significantly more likely to participate in village council meetings. A woman’s ability to participate in village-level politics may depend on a high-stakes bargain with her husband and in-laws, while the decision to get an NREGS card may be the result of a lower-stakes bargain because outside employment will earn the household extra income. Political participation may depend

> 14Thirty-six percent of all women in our sample attend village council meetings, but only 8 percent of untreated women do. Fourteen percent of non-participants attend village council meetings, so the predicted outcome of 8 percent is significantly lower. However, this discrepancy may simply highlight the importance of spillover effects generated by _Mahila Samakhya_ .

> 15District-level data on women’s access to NREGS identification cards are not available for the entire state.

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