IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v63y2006i6p1517-1530.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nutritional status and spousal empowerment among native Amazonians

Author

Listed:
  • Godoy, Ricardo A.
  • Patel, Ankur
  • Reyes-García, Victoria
  • Seyfried, Craig Jr.
  • Leonard, William R.
  • McDade, Thomas
  • Tanner, Susan
  • Vadez, Vincent

Abstract

Researchers and development organizations have shown interest in individual empowerment because it presumably improves well-being. Estimates of empowerment's effects on well-being contain biases from the potential endogeneity of empowerment. Using data from a sexually egalitarian and highly autarkic society of foragers and horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane', we overcome the problems that this poses by: (1) matching spouses' responses to the same questions about who makes decisions or who breaks ties in 10 domains to improve accuracy in measures of empowerment; and (2) using parental attributes of spouses as instrumental variables for spousal empowerment. Outcomes include two anthropometric indices of short-run nutritional status: body-mass index and age and sex-standardized z scores of mid-arm muscle area. The amount of empowerment of household heads did not affect their nutritional status or other indicators of their well-being, such as income, wealth, expenditures, happiness, social capital, or self-perceived health. It also did not affect the nutritional status of their offspring. Nor did it affect the difference in income, wealth, or monetary expenditures between spouses. The insubstantial effects persisted with other definitions of empowerment or types of regressions. We end with a discussion of why empowerment, despite its popularity in development discourse, has such tenuous links with objective indicators of well-being, and the implication of this finding for future studies of empowerment's effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Godoy, Ricardo A. & Patel, Ankur & Reyes-García, Victoria & Seyfried, Craig Jr. & Leonard, William R. & McDade, Thomas & Tanner, Susan & Vadez, Vincent, 2006. "Nutritional status and spousal empowerment among native Amazonians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1517-1530, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:6:p:1517-1530
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00191-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2003. "Food Aid and Child Nutrition in Rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1309-1324, July.
    2. Ferro-Luzzi, Anna & Morris, Saul S. & Taffesse, Samson & Demissie, Tsegaye & D'Amato, Maurizio, 2001. "Seasonal undernutrition in rural Ethiopia:," Research reports 118, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Godoy, Ricardo A. & Leonard, William R. & Reyes-Garcia, Victoria & Goodman, Elizabeth & McDade, Thomas & Huanca, Tomas & Tanner, Susan & Vadez, Vincent, 2006. "Physical stature of adult Tsimane' Amerindians, Bolivian Amazon in the 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 184-205, June.
    4. Brown, Philip H. & Park, Albert, 2002. "Education and poverty in rural China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 523-541, December.
    5. Deepa Narayan, 2002. "Empowerment and Poverty Reduction : A Sourcebook," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15239.
    6. Priya Nanda, 1999. "Women's participation in rural credit programmes in Bangladesh and their demand for formal health care: is there a positive impact?1," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(5), pages 415-428, August.
    7. Godoy, Ricardo & Byron, Elizabeth & Reyes-García, Victoria & Vadez, Vincent & Leonard, William R. & Apaza, Lilian & Huanca, Tomás & Pérez, Eddy & Wilkie, David, 2005. "Income inequality and adult nutritional status: Anthropometric evidence from a pre-industrial society in the Bolivian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 907-919, September.
    8. Kar, Snehendu B. & Pascual, Catherine A. & Chickering, Kirstin L., 1999. "Empowerment of women for health promotion: a meta-analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(11), pages 1431-1460, December.
    9. Haddad, Lawrence & Hoddinott, John, 1994. "Women's income and boy-girl anthropometric status in the Cote d'Ivoire," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 543-553, April.
    10. Hindin, Michelle J., 2000. "Women's power and anthropometric status in Zimbabwe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(10), pages 1517-1528, November.
    11. Smith, Lisa C. & Ramakrishnan, Usha & Ndiaye, Aida & Haddad, Lawrence James & Martorell, Reynaldo, 2003. "The importance of women's status for child nutrition in developing countries:," Research reports 131, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lu Gram & Joanna Morrison & Jolene Skordis-Worrall, 2019. "Organising Concepts of ‘Women’s Empowerment’ for Measurement: A Typology," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 1349-1376, June.
    2. Valeggia, Claudia R. & Burke, Kevin M. & Fernandez-Duque, Eduardo, 2010. "Nutritional status and socioeconomic change among Toba and Wichí populations of the Argentinean Chaco," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 100-110, March.
    3. Zeng, Wu & Undurraga, Eduardo A. & Nyberg, Colleen & Eisenberg, Dan T.A. & Parida, Sabita & Zycherman, Ariela & Magvanjav, Oyunbileg & Reyes-García, Victoria & Tanner, Susan & Godoy, Ricardo, 2013. "Sibling composition during childhood and adult blood pressure among native Amazonians in Bolivia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 391-400.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yacob A. Zereyesus & Vincent Amanor-Boadu & Kara L. Ross & Aleksan Shanoyan, 2017. "Does Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Matter for Children’s Health Status? Insights from Northern Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 1265-1280, July.
    2. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    3. Tagel Gebrehiwot & Carolina Castilla, 2018. "Do safety net transfers improve household diets and reduce undernutrition? Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Working Papers PMMA 2018-03, PEP-PMMA.
    4. Caroline G McKenna & Susan A Bartels & Lesley A Pablo & Melanie Walker, 2019. "Women’s decision-making power and undernutrition in their children under age five in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: A cross-sectional study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Philip H. Brown, 2009. "Dowry and Intrahousehold Bargaining: Evidence from China," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(1).
    6. Francis Tsiboe & Yacob A. Zereyesus & Jennie S. Popp & Evelyn Osei, 2018. "The Effect of Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture on Household Nutrition and Food Poverty in Northern Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 89-108, July.
    7. Gebremeskel Berhane Tesfay & Babatunde Abidoye, 2019. "Shocks in food availability and intra-household resources allocation: evidence on children nutrition outcomes in Ethiopia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-21, December.
    8. Godoy, Ricardo & Bauchet, Jonathan & Behrman, Jere R. & Huanca, Tomás & Leonard, William R. & Reyes-García, Victoria & Rosinger, Asher & Tanner, Susan & Undurraga, Eduardo A. & Zycherman, Ariela, 2024. "Changes in adult well-being and economic inequalities: An exploratory observational longitudinal study (2002–2010) of micro-level trends among Tsimane’, a small-scale rural society of Indigenous Peopl," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    9. Smith, Natalia & Garrett, James L. & Vardhan, Vishnu, 2008. "FOOD AND NUTRITION IN HYDERABAD. Current Knowledge and Priorities for Action in an Urban Setting," Analysis and Action for Sustainable Development of Hyderabad 6369, Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    10. Holland, Cara & Rammohan, Anu, 2019. "Rural women’s empowerment and children’s food and nutrition security in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Reyes-García, Victoria & McDade, Thomas W. & Molina, Jose Luis & Leonard, William R. & Tanner, Susan N. & Huanca, Tomas & Godoy, Ricardo, 2008. "Social rank and adult male nutritional status: Evidence of the social gradient in health from a foraging-farming society," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2107-2115, December.
    12. Helen M. Haugh & Alka Talwar, 2016. "Linking Social Entrepreneurship and Social Change: The Mediating Role of Empowerment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 643-658, February.
    13. Kassie, Menale & Fisher, Monica & Muricho, Geoffrey & Diiro, Gracious, 2020. "Women’s empowerment boosts the gains in dietary diversity from agricultural technology adoption in rural Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    14. Sebastian Vollmer & Sarah Khan & Le Thi Ngoc Tu & Atika Pasha & Soham Sahoo, 2017. "PROTOCOL: The effect of interventions for women's empowerment on children's health and education: A systematic review of evidence from low‐ and middle‐income countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-61.
    15. Youqin Huang & Zai Liang & Qian Song & Ran Tao, 2020. "Family Arrangements and Children's Education Among Migrants: A Case Study of China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 484-504, May.
    16. Okuneye Babatunde A & Obasan Kehinde A, 2014. "Determinants of Demand for Primary Education in Nigeria," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 2(2), pages 44-51, February.
    17. Blocker, Christopher P. & Ruth, Julie A. & Sridharan, Srinivas & Beckwith, Colin & Ekici, Ahmet & Goudie-Hutton, Martina & Rosa, José Antonio & Saatcioglu, Bige & Talukdar, Debabrata & Trujillo, Carlo, 2013. "Understanding poverty and promoting poverty alleviation through transformative consumer research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1195-1202.
    18. Branisa, Boris & Peres-Cajías, Jose & Caspa, Nigel, 2020. "The biological standard of living in La Paz (Bolivia), 1880s–1920s: Persistent stagnation and inequality," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    19. Alan de Brauw & John Giles, 2017. "Migrant Opportunity and the Educational Attainment of Youth in Rural China," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 272-311.
    20. Shuang Chen, 2020. "Parental Investment After the Birth of a Sibling: The Effect of Family Size in Low-Fertility China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2085-2111, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:6:p:1517-1530. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.