Women's empowerment is crucial for economic development and poverty reduction. Empowered women demonstrate higher work productivity, improved family budget allocation (particularly towards food and children), better child health outcomes, increased labor force participation, and greater utilization of healthcare services. Similarly, women's asset ownership is linked to increased family spending on education and nutrition, higher likelihood of prenatal care, and reduced risk of intimate partner violence. Existing research has explored the association between social capital (including network participation and reciprocity) and women's empowerment, showing positive correlations. However, this research primarily focuses on individual-level social trust and the network component of social capital, neglecting the contextualized community-level social trust. This study addresses this gap by theoretically arguing and empirically testing the effect of community-level social trust on women's empowerment, focusing on post-communist countries where women's empowerment has been weakened and where such research is limited. This large-scale multinational study allows for analysis of the relationship between diverse dimensions of women's empowerment and community-level social trust, overcoming the limitations of previous single-country studies.

The literature highlights the multifaceted nature of women's empowerment, encompassing economic, cultural, social, and political spheres. Key indicators of women's empowerment include asset ownership (land, bank accounts, dwellings) and decision-making autonomy within the household. Previous research demonstrates the positive impact of social capital on women's empowerment, particularly through network participation in self-help groups. However, these studies primarily focus on individual-level trust and network components of social capital, overlooking the crucial role of contextualized community-level social trust. This study contributes by examining community-level social trust as a predictor of women's empowerment, filling a critical gap in the existing literature.

This study utilizes data from the Life in Transition Survey (LITS) third wave (2016), encompassing 23,292 women across 26 post-communist countries. Two indices measure women's empowerment: the Index of Women's Asset Ownership (based on ownership of land, bank accounts, and dwellings) and the Index of Women's Autonomy in Household Decision-Making (based on decision-making power regarding daily expenses, savings, and significant purchases). Community-level social trust is measured using an aggregate score from survey responses about general trust in people within the community. To address endogeneity issues (reverse causality, unobserved factors, measurement error), the study employs instrumental variable (IV) regression. Two main instruments are used: population density (higher density potentially leads to lower trust) and willingness to take risks (linked to individualism/collectivism and trust). Robustness checks utilize additional instruments (latitude and caloric sustainability index), separate rural/urban and age group samples, and include individual-level trust as a control. All analyses are conducted using Stata software.

Single-stage OLS regression revealed a positive association between community-level social trust and women's asset ownership but no significant effect on decision-making autonomy. However, IV regression, addressing endogeneity, showed a significantly positive effect of community trust on both indicators of women's empowerment. Specifically, Model 3 (using population density as an instrument) showed that a one-unit increase in social trust increased women's asset ownership by a factor of 1.215, while Model 4 showed a 0.270 increase in decision-making autonomy. Models 5 and 6 (using willingness to take risks as an instrument) showed similar positive and significant effects, with slightly different magnitudes. Robustness checks across rural/urban and age groups consistently confirmed the positive effects of community trust on women's empowerment. Furthermore, even after controlling for individual-level trust and numerous other covariates, the positive effect of community-level trust persisted. The use of alternative instruments (latitude and caloric sustainability index) also supported the main findings. Diagnostic tests (F-statistic, Stock-Yogo test, Durbin and Wu-Hausman tests, Sargan and Basman tests) validated the instrument choices and confirmed the presence of endogeneity, justifying the IV approach.

The findings strongly support the hypothesis that community-level social trust positively influences women's empowerment. The substantial differences between OLS and IV results highlight the importance of addressing endogeneity in this type of analysis. The robustness of the findings across various subgroups and instrument specifications enhances the generalizability of the results. The independent effect of community-level trust on empowerment, even after controlling for individual-level trust, emphasizes the importance of fostering community-level trust as a distinct pathway to promoting gender equality. The study’s broad geographic scope increases the generalizability of its findings.

This study provides compelling evidence for the positive causal relationship between community-level social trust and women's empowerment, measured by asset ownership and decision-making autonomy. The IV approach effectively addresses endogeneity concerns, offering more reliable estimates than single-stage models. The findings highlight the importance of community-based interventions to promote social trust as a crucial strategy for advancing gender equality in post-communist countries. Future research should explore a broader range of empowerment indicators, utilize purpose-designed surveys for more in-depth data, and conduct qualitative studies to further understand the mechanisms underlying this relationship.

The study relies on secondary data analysis, limiting the control over variable definitions and data collection methods. The cross-sectional nature of the data prevents causal inferences over time. While the instruments were tested and found to be valid, the possibility of indirect effects remains. The study is limited to post-communist countries, affecting its generalizability to other contexts.