Why Are Older Women Missing in India? The Age Profile of Bargaining Power and Poverty

Abstract

Almost half of missing women in India are of post-reproductive ages. I show that intra-household gender inequality and gender asymmetry in poverty can account for a substantial fraction of these missing women. Using a natural experiment, I link women's intra-household bargaining power to their mortality risk. Using a structural model of households, I estimate the age profile of women's bargaining power and construct relative poverty rates for women. I find that bargaining power declines with age, and that women's relative poverty rates closely match their higher than expected mortality rates by age. This match is nearly exact at post-reproductive ages.

Keywords: Missing Women, Intra-Household Bargaining Power, Women's Health, Hindu Succession Act, Collective Model, Resource Shares, Poverty, Elderly

JEL Classification: D1, K36, I12, I31, I32, J12, J14, J16