A Field of Her Own: Property Rights and Women’s Agency in Myanmar

Can financial incentives lead households to register land in women’s names, thereby providing them with formal property rights? Can formal property ownership improve women’s economic outcomes and change decision-making dynamics within the household? To investigate these questions, we take advantage of a bank lending policy in Myanmar that motivated households with land holdings above 10 acres to title the surplus land in their wives’ names. We surveyed 5,068 men and women in Myanmar about land ownership, economic activity, and gendered decision-making. We find that the financial incentives provided by the bank lending policy led to increases in women’s formal property ownership, but these exogenously assigned rights did not manifest broadly into greater economic empowerment or decision-making power for recipients. We provide suggestive evidence that local cultural norms are a significant constraint for women to achieve empowerment through formal land rights.