Punjab Economic Opportunities Program (PEOP)

Low-income countries are increasingly setting up welfare systems and providing economic opportunities for their citizens through cash transfer, employment generation, and skills enhancement programmes. Many of these policies are directed towards those who have been historically excluded from state programmes—the poor, rural inhabitants, and women. The success of such policies relies on these individuals being able to access the benefits provided to them. In practice, we often see “money left on the table” in that studies document how villagers do not obtain subsidised rice, widows fail to take advantage of monthly stipends, and women are unable to obtain vocational training, despite the large gains such programmes may have.

This project aims to help alleviate poverty and vulnerability by augmenting the skills-base of low income, poor and vulnerable families by improving their technical and vocational skills. The main goal is to increase the rate of income growth in poor and vulnerable households in high poverty districts of Southern Punjab – Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Lodhran, and Muzaffargarh.

This project uses experimental variation to estimate the value of one such access constraint—travel that requires a woman to move outside her community. We study a skills development programme in rural Pakistan, which is representative of many underdeveloped regions throughout the world where female mobility—a widely recognised barrier to development —is a challenge for both logistical and cultural reasons.