The effects of intra-household female bargaining power on asset ownership: an empirical analysis using the ENDIREH 2016

Abstract

The pursuit of a gender-equal society raises several concerns about the mechanisms by which women gain more power and how these shifts alter household bargaining dynamics. Most of the empirical literature in this realm explores how an exogenous shift on income or asset ownership impacts female bargaining power. This research contributes to the existing literature by exploring the inverse causality relationship between bargaining power and asset ownership. Since the relationship is likely endogenous, this work used two-stage least squares strategy to solve the endogeneity problem. To apply the desired empirical strategy, data from the ENDIREH 2016 was used to compute Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) indices to analyse bargaining power and domestic violence. The results indicate 1) a weak but positive relationship between female bargaining power and home ownership: an increase of one unit of the index for bargaining power increases the likelihood of owning her house of 12.1%, and 2) an increase in one unit of the bargaining power index increases the likelihood of a woman working outside the household in 11.4%. Both results can justify the development programmes that tackle the disparities of bargaining power within households as a means of reducing structural barriers that prevent females to own assets or enter the labour market. This research also finds a very strong relationship between domestic violence and female bargaining power. Therefore, if a policymaker was interested in reducing disparities of bargaining power within the households, they should address domestic violence as a means for empowering women.