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Women's Empowerment and Prevalence of Stunted and Underweight Children in Rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Katsushi S. Imai

    (School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester (UK) and RIEB, Kobe University (Japan))

  • Samuel Kobina ANNIM

    (Department of Economics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana)

  • Veena S. KULKARNI

    (Department of Criminology, Sociology & Geography, Arkansas State University, USA)

  • Raghav Gaiha

    (Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, India and Statistics and Studies for Development(SSD) Division, Strategy and Knowledge Management Department, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Italy)

Abstract

This study investigates whether mother's empowerment measured by her education attainment relative to father's, domestic violence and autonomy is related to children's nutritional status using the three rounds of NFHS data in India. First, mother's relative education is associated with better nutritional status of children in the short run. Second, the quantile regression results show strong associations between women's empowerment and better nutritional status of children in the long run at the low end of its conditional distribution. Finally, we find the relation between access to health schemes and better nutritional measures of children.

Suggested Citation

  • Katsushi S. Imai & Samuel Kobina ANNIM & Veena S. KULKARNI & Raghav Gaiha, 2014. "Women's Empowerment and Prevalence of Stunted and Underweight Children in Rural India," Discussion Paper Series DP2014-19, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
  • Handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2014-19
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    References listed on IDEAS

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