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Intra-household Resource Shares under Poverty Transfers: Evidence from Ecuador

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  • Casco José L.

Abstract

This paper estimates a structural model of household behavior in the presence of cash transfers to recover the amount of resources allocated to men, women, and children. Using data from Ecuador, I find that there are important intra-household inequalities, but the transfer induces a redistribution of resources among household members. I further explore the potential implications of this reallocation of resources in several domains and find that transfers increase the women's control of resources and increase household welfare by reducing poverty, especially for women and children. I also show that when the mother controls the majority of the household resources, it affects the patterns of consumption of the household and how households react to unexpected shocks. These results contribute to understanding better the redistributive effects of income support programs.

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  • Casco José L., 2022. "Intra-household Resource Shares under Poverty Transfers: Evidence from Ecuador," Working Papers 2022-03, Banco de México.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2022-03
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Resource shares; Transfers; Control of resources; Poverty; Consumption;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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