Intrahousehold welfare

Abstract

Using an unusually comprehensive dataset from rural Ethiopia, we look for systematic relationships between bargaining power and various dimensions of intrahousehold welfare. Our results confrm some of the results previously found in the literature. We find that the relative nutrition of spouses is associated with systematic di¤erences in intelligence, independent source of income, devolution of assets upon divorce. We also find that several dimensions of female empowerment benefit the nutrition and education level of children. Contrary to expectations, other dimensions of intrahousehold welfare, such as health, leisure, and consumption, are not systematically associated with differences in bargaining power. We also find systematic differences in the nutritional and health status of spouses across villages, but these differences do not correlate well with anthropological accounts of female empowerment in rural Ethiopia. The lack of strong association between bargaining variables and many dimensions of intrahousehold welfare may be due to the fact that surveyed households are very poor and thus have little room for disagreement over consumption and leisure.

Keywords: Ethiopia, intra-household allocations, bargaining power

JEL Classification: D10