Culture, Intra-household Distribution and Individual Poverty

Ulugbek Aminjonov, Olivier Bargain, Maira Colacce and Luca Tiberti

Working Papers - Economics from Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa

Abstract: Traditional family structures often have persistent effects on household decisions. We question whether kinship ancestries of post-marital residence -- i.e. living with the parents of the groom (patrilocality) or the bride (matrilocality) -- still affect household consumption sharing and individual poverty. We focus on Ghana and Malawi, two countries in which patrilocal and matrilocal traditions coexist in the present-day ethnic distribution. We estimate a model of resource allocation using household expenditure surveys and information on prevalent ethnic norms. Estimations show that ancestral patrilocality, relative to matrilocality, corresponds to a 10 percent lower share of resources accruing to women on average and a substantially higher prevalence of poverty for women at most household consumption levels. Women's resource shares tend to increase with age, a pattern more pronounced for matrilocal groups. These results indicate how a combination of cultural and demographic factors can be used to improve policies targeted at poor individuals (rather than poor households).

Keywords: Cultural norms; Collective Model; Sharing rule; Individual poverty; Intra-household inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 I15 J12 J16 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-evo
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Working Paper: Culture, Intra-household Distribution and Individual Poverty (2023)
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