Women and poverty: insights from individual consumption in Albania

Gianni Betti, Lucia Mangiavacchi and Luca Piccoli

Review of Economics of the Household, 2020, vol. 18, issue 1, No 4, 69-91

Abstract: Abstract This paper studies how a society with traditional gender norms and competitive marriage market conditions may favor unequal distribution of resources within households and a consequent increase in female poverty. We propose a method to estimate individual consumption from household expenditure data. After estimating individual consumption, we apply a fuzzy approach for poverty analysis. Compared to standard poverty measures, the approach is less sensitive to changes in the distribution of consumption around the poverty line, generated when accounting for unequal distribution of household resources. The approach, applied to the analysis of individual poverty in Albania, revealed considerable intrahousehold inequality that specifically affects women and is correlated with imbalances in the sex ratio induced by past migrations. This leads to an expected general increase in poverty rates, mainly driven by a previously unperceived issue, female poverty, which emerges as an aspect of concern to consider in future anti-poverty policies.

Keywords: Female poverty; Intrahousehold distribution; Fuzzy set poverty; Sex ratios; Social norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 H31 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11150-019-09452-3

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