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COVID-19, Crises and Women's Control of Resources: Evidence from Mexico

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  • Casco José L.

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of crises on the intra-household allocation of resources. To study this issue, I use survey data from Mexico and estimate a structural model of household behavior to recover how much resources are allocated to each household member. Then, I construct a proxy for women's bargaining power using the women's control of resources and document how it evolves over periods of economic stability and contraction. The results suggest that during the COVID-19 crisis period, women's control of resources decreased relative to the non-recession period (4-5 percentage points) and the financial crisis (6-8 percentage points). This effect was more pronounced for households with children than those without children. Finally, I look into how this resource reallocation affects household consumption and individual poverty. The results of this paper highlight the heterogeneous behavior of intra-household inequality and women's bargaining power over the business cycle. It also suggests that the hypothesis that the financial crisis was a "man-cession" and the COVID-19 crisis was a "she-cession" holds in terms of intra-household resource allocation.

Suggested Citation

  • Casco José L., 2023. "COVID-19, Crises and Women's Control of Resources: Evidence from Mexico," Working Papers 2023-12, Banco de México.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2023-12
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    File URL: https://www.banxico.org.mx/publications-and-press/banco-de-mexico-working-papers/%7B506F26BA-8832-3D1D-9E86-70B65E737672%7D.pdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crisis; Resource shares; Control of resources; COVID-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

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