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Women's asset ownership and children's nutritional status: Evidence from Papua New Guinea

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  • van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana
  • Kassens, Alice Louise

Abstract

This study examines how women's asset ownership is associated with children's nutritional status in Papua New Guinea, a country with some of the most severe child malnutrition in the world. The 2009–2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey is employed, but restricted to children under the age of 72 months living with married mothers, leaving a final analytic sample of 1651. Asset ownership is expected to strengthen mothers' income-generating capacity and their bargaining power within the home, which increases investments in children's health. Women's ownership of fishing and agricultural equipment (important for meeting subsistence needs and for generating cash earnings) appears to be driving most of the results. OLS regression results point to beneficial effects of maternal asset ownership for children's height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age Z-scores, and results from detailed quantile regressions indicate that these effects occur at various parts of the distribution, especially for children's WAZ scores.

Suggested Citation

  • van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana & Kassens, Alice Louise, 2018. "Women's asset ownership and children's nutritional status: Evidence from Papua New Guinea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 100-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:204:y:2018:i:c:p:100-107
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.03.026
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    5. Vedika Inamdar & Anirudh Tagat & Aneree Parekh, 2023. "The Effect of Women’s Empowerment on Intimate Partner Violence and Child Nutrition Outcomes in India, Nepal, and Pakistan," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(1), pages 44-69, April.

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