Does a Wife's Bargaining Power Provide More Micronutrients to Females : Evidence from Rural Bangladesh
Using calories in a unitary framework, previous literature has claimed lack of gender inequality in intrahousehold food distribution. This paper finds that while there is lack of gender disparity in the calorie adequacy ratio, the disparity is prom...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/02/17360844/wifes-bargaining-power-provide-more-micronutrients-females-evidence-rural-bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13167 |
| Summary: | Using calories in a unitary framework,
previous literature has claimed lack of gender inequality in
intrahousehold food distribution. This paper finds that
while there is lack of gender disparity in the calorie
adequacy ratio, the disparity is prominent among children,
adolescents, and adults for a number of critical nutrients.
Pregnant and lactating women also receive much less of most
of these nutrients compared with their requirements. A
wife's bargaining power (proxied by assets at
marriage), as opposed to her husband's, significantly
and positively affects the nutrient allocations of children
and adolescents and of adult females. The bargaining effects
remain significant after controlling for unobserved
household characteristics and the potential
nutrition-health-labor market linkage. The findings, which
have important policy implications for the growing problem
of micronutrient malnutrition in the developing world, also
imply that perhaps the nutrition-health-labor market linkage
as a key explanation for intrahousehold food distribution
has been overemphasized in the previous literature. |
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