The impact of women's power on child quality in rural China

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of raising mother's controlling power over household resources on child development. One of the major contributions of this paper is that it uses a measure of mother's power that is unrelated with mother's ability. Mother's power is measured by her household headship status, which is defined as a person who plays a decisive role in household affaires. Using household survey data from rural China, this paper shows that children whose mother plays a decisive role in household affairs are generally taller than those whose father plays a decisive role. The evidence suggests that children indeed benefit from women's empowerment.©2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.