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Gender and poverty

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  • Quisumbing, Agnes R.
  • Haddad, Lawrence James
  • Peña, Christine

Abstract

This paper presents new evidence on the association between gender and poverty based on an empirical analysis of 11 data sets from 10 developing countries. The paper computes income- and expenditure-based poverty measures and investigates their sensitivity to the use of per capita and per adult equivalent units. It also tests for differences in poverty incidence between individuals in male- and female-headed households using stochastic dominance analysis. Stochastic dominance analysis reveals that differences between male- and female-headed households among the very poor are not sufficiently large that one can conclude that one is unambiguously worse- or better-off, except for a few exceptions. When we use the method of endogenous bounds, persons in female-headed households in rural Ghana and Bangladesh are consistently worse-off, using two stochastic dominance criteria. These results suggest that, among the very poor, persons in male- and female-headed households may not differ significantly. The consistent and significant exceptions, rural Ghana and Bangladesh, suggest that cultural and institutional factors may be responsible for higher poverty among women in these countries. Our results point to the need to analyze determinants of household income and consumption using multivariate methods, and to give greater attention to the processes underlying female headship.

Suggested Citation

  • Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Haddad, Lawrence James & Peña, Christine, 1995. "Gender and poverty," FCND discussion papers 9, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:fcnddp:9
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    Cited by:

    1. Stefano Pettinato, 2002. "A Conceptual Primer on the Currents and Trends in Inequality," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 23-56.
    2. Appleton, Simon, 1996. "Women-headed households and household welfare: An empirical deconstruction for Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(12), pages 1811-1827, December.
    3. Chen, Susan E. & Bhagowalia, Priya & Shively, Gerald, 2011. "Input Choices in Agriculture: Is There A Gender Bias?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 561-568, April.
    4. Francisco de Hollanda Guimarães Ferreira & Peter Lanjouw & Marcelo Neri, 2000. "A new poverty profile for Brazil using PPV, PNAD and census data," Textos para discussão 418, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil).
    5. Haddad, Lawrence James & Peña, Christine & Nishida, Chizuru & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Slack, Alison T., 1996. "Food security and nutrition implications of intrahousehold bias," FCND discussion papers 19, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Lanjouw, Peter & Neri, Marcelo Côrtes, 2003. "A Robust Poverty Profile for Brazil Using Multiple Data Sources," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 57(1), January.
    7. Marcelo Medeiros & Joana Simões Costa, 2005. "Poverty Among Women In Latin America: Feminization Or Over-Representation?," Anais do XXXIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 33rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 150, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    8. Medeiros, Marcelo & Costa, Joana, 2008. "Is There a Feminization of Poverty in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 115-127, January.
    9. Fuwa, Nobuhiko, 2000. "The Poverty and Heterogeneity Among Female-Headed Households Revisited: The Case of Panama," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1515-1542, August.
    10. Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Haddad, Lawrence James & Peña, Christine, 2001. "Are women overrepresented among the poor?," FCND briefs 115, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. & Brown, Lynn R. & Feldstein, Hilary Sims & Quisumbing, Agnes R., 1997. "Gender, property rights, and natural resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 1303-1315, August.
    12. Engle, Patrice L. & Castle, Sarah & Menon, Purnima, 1996. "Child development," FCND discussion papers 12, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Litchfield, Julie A., 1998. "Calm after the storms : income distribution in Chile, 1987-94," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1960, The World Bank.
    14. Kohlin, Gunnar & Sills, Erin O. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. & Wilfong, Christopher, 2011. "Energy, gender and development: what are the linkages ? where is the evidence ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5800, The World Bank.
    15. Chudgar, Amita, 2011. "Female Headship and Schooling Outcomes in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 550-560, April.
    16. Levin, Carol E. & Maxwell, Daniel G. & Armar-Klemesu, Margaret & Ruel, Marie T. & Morris, Saul Sutkover & Ahiadeke, Clement., 1999. "Working women in an urban setting," FCND discussion papers 66, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Newman, Constance & Canagarajah, Sudharshan, 2000. "Gender, poverty, and nonfarm employment in Ghana and Uganda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2367, The World Bank.
    18. Fuwa, Nobuhiko, 2000. "A Note on the Analysis of Female Headed Households in Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 23401, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Gutner, Tammi, 1999. "The political economy of Food subsidy reform in Egypt," FCND briefs 1, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Roy, Jessica & Crow, Ben, 2004. "Gender Relations and Access to Water: What We Want to Know About Social Relations and Women's Time Allocation," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt0m5033gv, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    21. Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2001. "Land, trees, and women: evolution of land tenure institutions in Western Ghana and Sumatra," Research reports 121, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    22. Fafchamps, Marcel, 1998. "Efficiency in intrahousehold resource allocation," FCND discussion papers 55, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    23. Peña, Christine & Webb, Patrick & Haddad, Lawrence James, 1996. "Women's economic advancement through agricultural change," FCND discussion papers 10, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

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