Entitled to Property: How Breaking the Gender Barrier Improves Child Health in India

Arbeitspapier

Non-unitary household models suggest that enhancing women's bargaining power can influence child health, a crucial determinant of human capital and economic standing throughout adulthood. We examine the effects of a policy shift, the Hindu Succession Act Amendment (HSAA), which granted inheritance rights to unmarried women in India, on child health. Our findings indicate that the HSAA improved children's height and weight. Furthermore, we uncover evidence supporting a mechanism whereby the policy bolstered women's intra-household bargaining power, resulting in downstream benefits through enhanced parental care for children and improved child health. These results emphasize that children fare better when mothers control a larger share of family resources. Policies empowering women can yield additional positive externalities for children's human capital

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16193

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation ; Health Behavior ; Health Insurance, Public and Private ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Demographic Economics: Public Policy ; Tort Law and Product Liability; Forensic Economics ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Cultural Economics: Religion ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: human capital ; height ; bargaining ; parental investments ; developing countries ; India

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hossain, Md Shahadath ; Nikolov, Plamen
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/278891
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET