PROPERTY STATUS AND DECISION-MAKING: EVIDENCE FROM GENDER ASSET GAP PROJECT Hema Swaminathan Centre for Public Policy Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

PROPERTY STATUS AND DECISION-MAKING: EVIDENCE FROM GENDER ASSET GAP PROJECT

Hema SwaminathanCentre for Public Policy

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Gender and Assets WorkshopWorld Bank

June 14, 2012

Motivation• Does women’s property ownership affect their

bargaining power in a relationship? Are they able to negotiate as equals with their husbands?

• Understanding the links between women’s property ownership and household decision-making processes

Data

• Data from Gender Asset Gap Project (2010-11)

• Truncated to households with couple respondents Ecuador: 1,776 Ghana: 1,572 Karnataka, India: 2,511

Decision-making

• Most surveys typically ask only women about specific decisions (health, purchases, contraception, etc.) Some exceptions (DHS) asks both men and women

about decision making on earnings , health care, and household purchases

• This project collects information from each spouse about: Their own decision Their involvement in their spouse’s decision

Decision-making (contd.)

• Decisions considered here Employment (only paid work, excludes contributing

workers) Use of earnings

Illustration, KarnatakaThe following were collected from each spouse:•Do/did you make the decision whether, when and where to be employed?•Do/did you make the decision whether, when and where your spouse is employed?

•Responses Individually Joint No, someone else makes the decision

Husband’s employment

Wife’s employment(2) Her say

(1) His say

(3) His say (4) Her say

Analogously for use of earnings

Decision on employment

• Combines responses from all four questions

•Each spouse reports that the decisions about their own employment and their spouses’ employment are made in consultation with each other

Egalitarian decision-making

Property ownership status• Defined as any immoveable property

Residence Agricultural land Other real estate

• Incidence of ownership Only wife owns, Only husband owns, Both own,

Neither owns (captures relative status within HH) Wife’s share in gross couple wealth (Ecuador and

Ghana)

Empirical specification• Logit models estimated with egalitarian as the

dependent variable

• Independent variable of interest: property status

• Also controlling for – individual characteristics of both spouses, differences in these, demographic, socio-economic characteristics of household, regional variations

RESULTS

Incidence of property ownership for all couples (%)

Egalitarian decision-making by wife’s property status (%)

Property status

Employment Earnings

Ecuador Ghana Karnataka Ecuador Ghana Karnataka

Wife owns some property

26.7 36.0 25.3 21.8 14.4 32.1

Wife does not own any property

24.7 32.9 34.8 17.5 11.9 45.4

Property status (incidence) & decision-making, odds ratios (employment)

Base: Neither owns Ecuador Ghana Karnataka

Only wife owns 0.59 0.49 0.93Only husband owns 0.97 0.94 0.90

Both own 1.59** 1.31 0.63

Property status (incidence) & decision-making, odds ratios (earnings)

Base: Neither owns Ecuador Ghana Karnataka

Only wife owns 0.63 0.63 0.81Only husband owns 0.80 0.73 0.98

Both own 1.58** 0.92 0.72

Property status (share in wealth) & decision-making

Ecuador Ghana

DecisionsWives' share

of wealthWives' share of wealth squared

Wives' share of wealth

Employment 2.426 -2.508 0.498

** **

Earnings 2.649 -2.792 1.492 *** *** ***

Variables Ecuador Ghana Karnataka

Wife’s age +Couple age difference -# of adult men -Couple earn the same (base: man earns more)

+

Only man has been in previous relationship (base: first union for both)

-

Both have been in previous relationship (base: first union for both)

-

Couple in same ethnic group (base: couple from different ethnic group)

+

Rural (base: Urban) + - +Religion (Islam, base: Hindu) -

Other determinants – Employment decision

Variables Ecuador Ghana Karnataka

Woman’s age -Women’s year of schoolingSchooling difference (man – woman)

+

Quintile 3 (base: Quintile 1)Quintile 5

++

Only wife employed (base: only husband employed)Both employedNeither

+++

Husband is wage employed (base: casual labour) +

Couple earn the same (base: man earns more) +Rural (base: Urban) + - +Not Christian (base: Christian)Mixed religionMuslim Couple

+--

Other determinants – Earnings decision

Concluding thoughts• Mixed results across countries • In Ecuador, the couple owning and share of

wealth matters• In Ghana only share of wealth matters• Property ownership (incidence) not making an

impact in Karnataka Previous work suggests women are likely to exhibit

more autonomy in decision-making when they own property

Concluding thoughts (contd.)• Egalitarian outcome is ‘ideal’ and restrictive

• For property status to impact egalitarianism, it would have to Impact her own involvement in decisions Her spouse’s perception of her involvement

• May not be the case as women rarely acquire property independently (natal inheritance, purchase); mostly co-owners on husband’s property

Extensions • Other ways of conceptualising decision making:

Autonomous Agreement (symmetry, egalitarian, husband

dominates, wife dominates) Disagreements

• Addressing endogeneity concerns

Thank You!

For the country studies & comparative report see:

http://genderassetgap.iimb.ernet.in

Indian Institute of Management BangaloreBannerghatta Road, Bangalore – 560 076, INDIA

www.iimb.ernet.in