Essays on Women’s Bargaining Power and Intra-household Resource in Rural Ethiopia

xv Abstract This thesis investigates the effect of a woman’s bargaining power on her welfare and that of her children in rural Ethiopia. The issue is of particular concern because, as empirical evidence shows, intra-household inequalities in welfare are frequently the direct consequence of inequalities in power positions within the household. Although much progress has been made in this area, the literature still shows substantial gaps. While it is evident that different bargaining power indicators capture distinct dimensions of women’s power, this is often ignored in the literature. Empirical analyses often work with the same narrow set of indicators, independent of the outcomes under study. Only a few studies have analyzed the distinct effects of specific dimensions and, hence, so far only little is known about what factors are relevant for which outcome. Using information from focus group discussions, this thesis shows that the factors that affect a woman’s bargaining power in this context originate from various dimensions. These include material and social resources, marital institutions, and the agency dimension. Using the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey dataset, the thesis analyses the effect of these dimensions on women’s participation in selfemployed off-farm work and various health outcomes. It also analyses the effect of the balance of power within a household on children’s labour and schooling outcomes. The study finds that women with better bargaining power have a lower probability of participating in off-farm self-employed work. This relationship remains the same during times of shocks when more participation in off-farm work is needed to supplement income declines.

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