Family Planning and Women’s Labor Supply: Experimental Evidence from Urban Malawi

Mahesh Karra, Boston University
Daniel Maggio, Cornell University
David Canning, Harvard University

We conducted a randomized controlled trial that provided women with improved access to family planning through counseling, free transport to a clinic, and reimbursement for services. We assess the impact of our intervention on women’s labor market outcomes and find that women are 5.2 p.p. more likely to be employed after two years of intervention exposure, which is driven by a 3.38 p.p. increase in wage-earning labor participation. The intervention resulted in more women reporting that they earn labor income, although we do not find evidence of increased income levels among women who report earnings. Among women’s husbands, we find evidence of substitution towards wage-earning labor but no evidence of changes in overall labor force participation, implying that overall household labor supply increased due to the intervention. Our results suggest that the positive effects of family planning extend beyond fertility and health to women’s labor supply.