Bring a friend: Leveraging financial and peer support to improve women’s reproductive agency in India

Women’s agency in the domain of family planning and reproductive health is a fundamental determinant of their well-being. We experimentally evaluate two approaches aimed at improving women’s reproductive agency in India. We offered treated women subsidized family planning services at a local clinic. Additionally, we enabled a subset of treated women to invite and incentivize others to visit the clinic with them. Although the subsidy encouraged women to seek company to the clinic and increased clinic visits, combining the subsidy with the ability to leverage peer support increased women’s contraceptive use, decreased their likelihood of pregnancy, and was more effective in strengthening reproductive agency and peer engagement. Women facing greater intrahousehold opposition to contraception appeared to benefit more from peer support. • Experimental evaluation of two strategies to improve women’s reproductive agency in India. • Subsidized family planning increased women’s clinic visits. • Peer support plus subsidy also increased contraceptive use and lowered pregnancies. • Combined approach strengthened reproductive agency and peer engagement more than subsidy alone. • Stronger impacts for women facing intrahousehold opposition to contraception.