WOMEN'S ASSETS AND INTRAHOUSEHOLD ALLOCATION IN RURAL BANGLADESH: TESTING MEASURES OF BARGAINING POWER

This paper examines how differences in the bargaining power of husband and wifeaffect the distribution of consumption expenditures in rural Bangladeshi households. Twoalternative measures of assets are used: current assets and the value of assets brought tomarriage. Results show that both assets at marriage and current assets are stronglydetermined by the human capital of husband and wife and the characteristics of their originfamilies. For both husband and wife, parents’ landholdings are a consistent determinant ofboth assets at marriage and current assets. Contrary to the unitary model, husband’s andwife’s assets have different effects on the allocation of expenditures within the household.Wife’s assets have a positive and significant effect on the share of expenditures onchildren’s clothing and education. This result is robust to the choice of asset measure andestimation procedure. After endogeneity of assets is accounted for, husband’s currentassets have a positive and significant effect on the food expenditure share. Neglecting theendogeneity of asset measures to individual and parental characteristics may lead to biasedestimates of the impact of men’s and women’s assets on expenditure shares.