Working Paper
Female say on income and child outcomes

This paper delves into the effect of female bargaining power on child education and labor outcomes in Nigeria. Female bargaining power is proxied by female say on labor income, rather than by female income per se. This is motivated by the fact female labor force participation might be low in some contexts, while control over income is by all means what matters the most.

The empirical methodology accounts for a number of empirical issues, including endogeneity and sample selection issues of female say on labor income, the multiequation and mixed process features of the child outcomes, as well as the fact that hours of work are left-censored. My findings are consistent with the overall idea that female say on income leads to better child outcomes, rather than female income earning per se. Nevertheless, the type of income under female control, child gender and child outcome matter.