Drivers of Change: Employment Responses to the Lifting of the Saudi Female Driving Ban

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Abou Daher, Chaza; Field, Erica; Swanson, Kendal; Vyborny, Kate
• 署名单位: Duke University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Duke University; The World Bank
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20240119
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 3248-3271
• 关键词: intimate partner violence; domestic violence; economic consequences; Cash transfers; income; women; gap; unemployment; INFORMATION; legislation

摘要

We conduct a field experiment to quantify the impact of the lifting of the Saudi women's driving ban on women's employment by randomizing rationed spaces in driver's training. Treated women are 41 percent more likely to be employed yet are 19 percent less likely to be able to make purchases without family permission. Patterns of heterogeneous treatment effects reveal that these divergent impacts of access to driving are experienced by distinct subgroups of women. The results underscore the importance of intrahousehold responses that can counteract legal gains in women's freedoms. (JEL C93, D13, J16, J22, K38, O15, O17)