Migration and the Autonomy of Women Left Behind

This paper provides new evidence on the impact of migration male household heads autonomy their spouses. Using panel survey data from Ethiopia, methodology mainly relies an instrumental variables approach that addresses endogeneity inherent in relationship and carefully pays attention to role remittances. After correcting for endogeneity, we find consistent increases female self-determination decision-making power, (to a lesser extent) ability protect one’s interests. As all these measure autonomy, our results suggest husbands offers opportunity women become more autonomous traditional societies.