Allocation of Goods Within the Household: Adults, Children, and Gender

摘要

There has recently been considerable discussion on the role of women in economic development; among the issues is whether or not there is discrimination within the household, so that women receive less than men and girls less than boys. The paper presents an empirical procedure that uses household survey data to cast light on the allocation within the household. Allocation between children of different genders is studied by estimating the effects of additional children on household expenditures on various adult goods. The size of the effect as between boys and girls tells us whether households typically allocate more to boys than to girls. Using the data from the 1985 Living Standards Survey of the Cote d'Ivoire, it is found that additional children do indeed reduce the demand for adult goods, but that the effects are identical for boys and girls. Even so, the allocation of the adult goods themselves is heavily biased towards adult males. (Copyright (c) 1988, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.)