Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/174097 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11187
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We evaluate the long-term impact of treating maternal depression on women’s financial empowerment and parenting decisions. We leverage experimental variation induced by a cluster-randomized control trial that provided psychotherapy to perinatally depressed mothers in rural Pakistan. It was one the largest psychotherapy interventions in the world, and the treatment was highly successful at reducing depression. We locate mothers seven years after the end of the intervention to evaluate its long-run effects. We find that the intervention increased women’s financial empowerment, increasing their control over household spending. Additionally, the intervention increased both time- and monetary-intensive parental investments, with increases in investments tending to favor girls.
Subjects: 
parenting
early life
empowerment
women’s labor supply
maternal depression
mental health
child development
randomized controlled trial
Pakistan
JEL: 
I15
I30
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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