 Children at Risk: The role of family structure in Latin America and West AfricaMPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Abstract: Models of the family proposed by the "new household economics" have had a strong influence on researchers and policymakers alike. In extending these models to developing countries, however, relatively little attention has been directed to the applicability of some of their underlying assumptions in diverse cultural settings. Two aspects of these models seem particularly problematic: the assumption of a cohesive family unit with perfect altruism within the family, and lack of consideration of flexible boundaries of the household observed in many cultures. Using data on the nutritional status of children in northeast Brazil, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic in Latin America, and in Ghana, Mali, and Senegal in West Africa, this article examines the importance of these two issues in predicting the level of resources available to children. Although parents care about the welfare of their children, their level of altruism varies across different types of families and seems to depend on culturally acceptable practices. Keywords: Intra-household resource allocation; marriage; bargaining models; Latin America; Sub Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:117301 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.