Women's Empowerment and Environmental Efficiency in Smallholder Rice Production: Evidence From Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

This study examines the relationship between women's empowerment and environmental efficiency using a directional distance function within a by‐production DEA framework and a Simar‐Wilson two‐stage regression. We also report associated patterns in technical efficiency as part of the joint production process. Results show that overall empowerment is positively and significantly associated with environmental efficiency, but only weakly linked to technical efficiency. Domain‐specific analysis reveals that empowerment in the income, resources, and leadership domains enhances environmental efficiency. However, empowerment in the production domain is negatively associated, likely reflecting structural resource constraints and distress‐led delegation of poorly resourced plots. The findings underscore that empowerment pathways are heterogeneous. Policies that strengthen women's decision‐making capacity alongside equitable resource access may promote more climate‐responsive and environmentally efficient smallholder systems.