Financial Decision-Making Dynamics Among Women and Financial Health in Kenya: Propensity Score Matching

Women empowerment and participation in decision-making is essential for promoting socioeconomic development and gender equality. While concerted efforts have been made to reduce gender inequality and promote women empowerment, women still lag behind men in key decision making. This paper analyzes how financial literacy and other factors influence financial decision making among women, and whether women’s participation in financial decision-making improves household financial health. The empirical analysis was conducted using propensity score matching using data from the Financial Access (FinAccess) survey 2021. The results show that a financially literate woman, or a rural woman was more likely to make key financial decisions jointly with spouse compared to a counterpart who was either financially illiterate or an urban resident. The results also indicate that a woman that made key financial decisions jointly with spouse was significantly more likely to be financially healthy compared to a counterpart that did not. The results suggest that access to financial education empower women to effectively participate in (joint) decision-making on financial related matters, which ultimately improves household’s welfare.女性赋权与决策参与，对于推动社会经济发展与性别平等至关重要。尽管已通过协同努力降低性别不平等、推进女性赋权，但女性在核心决策领域仍落后于男性。本研究剖析了金融素养（Financial Literacy）及其他因素对女性金融决策行为的影响，并探究女性参与金融决策是否能够改善家庭金融健康状况。本实证分析采用倾向得分匹配（Propensity Score Matching）方法，基于2021年金融获取（Financial Access, FinAccess）调查的数据开展。研究结果显示，相较于金融素养匮乏或居住于城镇的女性，具备金融素养的女性或农村女性，更倾向于与配偶共同参与核心金融决策。研究结果同时表明，与配偶共同参与核心金融决策的女性，其所在家庭的金融健康状况显著优于未参与此类决策的对照群体。上述结果表明，获取金融教育能够赋能女性有效参与金融相关事务的（共同）决策，最终提升家庭福祉。