essays on women's bargaining power and intra-household resource allocation in rural ethiopia

168 Pages·2011·1.21 MB·English

ESSAYS ON WOMEN’S BARGAINING POWER AND
INTRA-HOUSEHOLD RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN
RURAL ETHIOPIA
Bilisuma Bushie Dito
This dissertation is part of the Research Programme of CERES, Research School for
Resource Studies for Development

Funded by the Netherlands Fellowship Program (NFP)

© Bilisuma Bushie Dito 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the author.

Printed in The Netherlands

ISBN 978-90-815873-8-9
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Essays on Women’s Bargaining Power
and Intra-household Resource
Allocation
in Rural Ethiopia

ESSAYS OVER DE ONDERHANDELINGSPOSITIE VAN
VROUWEN EN DE TOEWIJZING VAN MIDDELEN
BINNEN HUISHOUDENS OP HET PLATTELAND IN
ETHIOPIË

Thesis

to obtain the degree of Doctor from the
Erasmus University Rotterdam
by command of the
rector magnificus

Professor dr H.G. Schmidt

and in accordance with the decision of the Doctorate Board

The public defence shall be held on
22 December 2011 at 10.00 hrs

by

Bilisuma Bushie Dito

born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Doctoral Committee
Promotors
Prof.dr. M. Grimm
Prof.dr. I.P. van Staveren
Other members
Prof.dr. A.S. Bedi
Dr. M. Dekker, African Studies Centre, Leiden
Dr. T Truong
Dedication
To my parents and my husband
Contents

List of Tables and Figures viii
Acronyms xi
Acknowledgements xii
Abstract xv
Samenvatting xvii
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Statement of the Problem 1
1.2 Research Questions 4
1.3 Overview of Data and Methodology 4
1.4 The Setting and Justification 7
1.5 The Chapters 8
Notes 9
2 DETERMINANTS OF WOMEN’SBARGAINING POWER IN RURAL
ETHIOPIA 10
2.1 Indicators of bargaining power: The Literature 10
2.2 Evidence from Ethiopia 13
2.3 Indicators used in the Empirical Chapters 27
Notes 30
3 THEEFFECT OF A WOMAN’SBARGAINING POWER ON HER
PARTICIPATION IN NON-FARM WORK IN RURALETHIOPIA 31
3.1 Introduction 31
3.2 Theoretical Considerations 33
3.3 Data and Descriptive Statistics 37
vi
Contents vii
3.4 Empirical Strategy 40
3.5 The Results 42
3.5 Conclusions 46
Notes 48
4 THEEFFECT OF A WOMAN’SBARGAINING POWER ON HER HEALTH
STATUS IN RURAL ETHIOPIA 49
4.1 Introduction 49
4.2 Theoretical Framework 51
4.3 The Data and Descriptive Statistics 53
4.4 Empirical Strategy 59
4.5 Findings of the Study 62
4.5.1 Bargaining Power and Health Status 62
4.5.2 Bargaining power and Health Inputs 70
4.6 Conclusions 72
Notes 73
5 THEEFFECT OF A WOMAN’SBARGAINING POWER ON CHILD LABOUR
AND SCHOOLING IN RURAL ETHIOPIA 75
5.1 Introduction 75
5.2 Review of the Relevant Literature 77
5.3 Theoretical Discussion 79
5.4 The Data and Descriptive Statistics 81
5.5 Empirical strategy 85
5.5 Findings 89
5.6 Conclusions 100
Notes 101
6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 102
Appendices 108
References 130
List of Tables and Figures

Tables
2.1 Descriptive Statistics of Bargaining Power Indicators 28
3.1 The Effect of a Woman’s Bargaining Power on her Participation in
Off-farm Self Employment (OLS) 44
3.2 The Effect of a woman’s Bargaining Power on her Participation in
Off-farm Self Employment during Shocks (OLS) 46
4.1 Descriptive Statistics of the Health Status Measures 55
4.2 The Effect of Bargaining Power on Self- Reported Health Status
(OLS) 63
4.3 The Effects of a Woman’s Bargaining Power on her Functional
health, Body Mass index and Chronic Energy Deficiency (OLS) 65
4.4 The Effect of a Woman’s Bargaining Power on Intra household
Inequality in Health Status (OLS) 69
4.5 The Effect of Bargaining Power Indicators on Health Inputs 71
5.1 Descriptive Statistics on Child labour and Schooling outcomes 83
5.2 Descriptive Statistics on Decision Making on Various Domains 84
5.3 The Percentage of Women depending on the Number of Domains
they alone decide on (%) 85
5.4 Tobit Estimation of hours spent on domestic work 92
5.5 Tobit Estimation of hours spent on Economic work 93
5.6 Marginal Effects of Probability of attending school for children aged
5-15 96
5.7 Tobit Estimation of Age Adjusted Education Attainment (SAGE)
for children 7-15 99
viii
List of Tables and Figures ix
A3.1 Participation Rates in Different Types of Off-farm Self-
employment Activities by Gender (%) 109
A3.2 Participation in Different types Wage Work by Gender (%) 110
A3.3 Participation Rates in Off-farm Self-employment and Wage Work
by Household Poverty Status and Gender (%) 111
A3.4 Descriptive Statistics of Key Variables 112
A3.5 Estimation Results of Bargaining Power Variables on Married
Women’s Participation on Off-farm Self-Employment (Estimated
Individually)(OLS) 113
A3.6 The Effect of Agricultural Shocks on Married Men’s and Women’s
Participation in Off-farm Self- Employment(OLS) 114
A4. 1 Descriptive Statistics of Key Variables 115
A4.2 Health Status by Socioeconomic Status 116
A4.3 Descriptive Statistics of Health Status by Bargaining Power
Variables 117
A4.4 Descriptive Statistics of Intra-household Health Inequality 119
A4.5 Estimation Results of Interaction Effects of Bargaining Power
Variables with Region Dummy on Self Assessed Health Status
(OLS) 120
A4.6 Estimation Results of Interaction Effects of Bargaining Power
Variables with region dummy on the Objective Health Outcomes
(OLS) 121
A4.7 Interaction Effects of Assets Brought to Marriage with BP
Variables on the Objective Health Outcomes (OLS) 122
A5.1 Schooling Labour Outcomes by Decision Making Power 123
A5.2 Descriptive Statistics of Key Variables 125
A5. 3 Tobit Estimation on the Effect of a Woman’s Power over
Investment Decision in Human Capital on Hours Children spent
on Domestic Work 126
A5.4 Tobit Estimation on the Effect of a Woman’s Power over
Investment Decision in Human Capital on Hours children spent on
Economic Work 127
A5.5 Marginal Effects of Probability of attending School for Children
aged 5-15 128
A5.6 Tobit Estimation of Age Adjusted Education Attainment (SAGE)
for Children 7-15 129
x WOMEN’S BARGAINING POWER &INTRA-HOUSEHOLD RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN RURAL ETHIOPIA
Figures
2.1 Analytical Framework on Dimensions that affect Women’s
Bargaining Power 18
4.1 Flow Chart on the Relationship between Bargaining Power and
Health Status 51
5.1 The relationship between child labour and balance of power within a
household 80
A3.1 Participation Rates in Off-farm Self-employment by Gender (%) 108
A3.2 Participation Rates in Wage Work by Gender 110