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Gender and Poverty: New Evidence from 10 Developing Countries
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Quisumbing, Agnes Haddad, Lawrence Peña, Christine F. |
| Copyright Year | 1995 |
| Abstract | This study examines the links between gender and poverty in 10 developing countries (7 in sub-Saharan Africa 3 in Asia and 1 in Latin America). Poverty is measured by income and expenditure variables. Stochastic dominance analysis is applied in the test for ranked differences in poverty incidence between individuals in male- and female-headed households. The empirical literature shows inconsistent results due to the selection of household head as the unit of analysis for measuring individual conditions. Cash income measures underestimate the welfare of subsistence households and neglect gender differences in use of time. Per capita measures based on household size overstate poverty in households with children. Adult equivalency scales fail to reflect dependency burdens and generalized scales for all countries neglect cross-country variation in costs of raising children. Definitions of household head vary by country. Summary measures of poverty may be compromised by errors in living standards data by unknown differences between households with similar consumption patterns and by uncertainty about the poverty line. This study uses the Foster Greer and Thorbecke (1984) class of poverty measures in order to capture a range of judgments on incidence and depth of poverty. Summary findings show weak support that the poor are dominated by female-headed households. Individuals in female-headed households were worse off in about 33% to 50% of countries. Stochastic dominance analysis reveals few differences between male- and female-headed households among the poor. Endogenous bounds methods and two stochastic dominance criteria reveal consistently worse off female-headed households in rural Ghana and Bangladesh. Multivariate analysis might yield other findings. It is surprising that poverty differences are not as great considering the gender disparity in levels of education assets and social indicators. There is a need for better information on the dynamics of households and their interactions with economic social and political conditions. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.22004/ag.econ.97310 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.cgiar.org/IFPRI/divs/fcnd/dp/papers/dp09.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://tind-customer-agecon.s3.amazonaws.com/2ed08e52-19a6-4552-9439-69d882842b8d?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAXL7W7Q3XHXDVDQYS&Expires=1574036073&Signature=N/Nds0mzsBn4wu%2BjZhEWDHmEtqc%3D&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B+filename*%3DUTF-8''Gender%2520and%2520poverty.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.ifpri.org/divs/fcnd/dp/papers/dp09.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/dp09.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.97310 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
