Intrahousehold Inequality and Child Gender Bias in Ethiopia
The Rothbarth model of intrahousehold resource allocation has consistently failed to detect child gender bias in many applications over the past two decades. This paper challenges the current consensus that the Rothbarth method is not effective in...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/10/9954700/intrahousehold-inequality-child-gender-bias-ethiopia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6912 |
| Summary: | The Rothbarth model of intrahousehold
resource allocation has consistently failed to detect child
gender bias in many applications over the past two decades.
This paper challenges the current consensus that the
Rothbarth method is not effective in revealing child gender
bias from consumption behavior of adults. It proposes an
approach to the Rothbarth model that restricts its
application to samples of nuclear households, and employs an
index of child gender based on the number of children in the
household and related to a specific selective mechanism of
discrimination. It demonstrates the effectiveness of this
approach with an application to a 2005-06 Ethiopian
consumption survey of 21,299 households conducted by
Ethiopia's Statistical Authority, covering both urban
and rural areas. The paper presents the first clear and
extensive evidence of discrimination against girls by all
four adult goods employed, and the outcome persists, in
various degrees, when reexamined with a lower definition of
child age, and with female-headed households. The findings
provide support for gender-based policies in child-health
and education in Ethiopia. |
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