IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/ijhcfe/v24y2024i2d10.1007_s10754-024-09368-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women’s empowerment, modern energy, and demand for maternal health services in Benin

Author

Listed:
  • Alastaire Sèna Alinsato

    (University of Abomey-Calavi)

  • Calixe Bidossessi Alakonon

    (University of Abomey-Calavi)

  • Nassibou Bassongui

    (University of Abomey-Calavi)

Abstract

One of the major concerns for developing countries is improving the use of health services by the general population, and in particular, maternal and child health services. This concern reflects the Sustainable Development Goals 3, which aim to ensure the health and well-being of all by improving reproductive health, and especially maternal and child health. This study analyses the extent to which modern energies improve women’s empowerment and the demand for maternal health services in a low income country. The empirical estimations were based on the 2017 Benin Demographic Health Survey data. We adopted the trivariate recursive probit modelling to find out the extent to which modern energies improve women’s empowerment and the demand for maternal health services. The results revealed that the demand for maternal health services was significantly and positively associated with women’s empowerment. Notably, being an empowered woman (social independence and decision-making) increases the chance of completing antenatal care visits. We further highlighted the importance of women’s wealth in accessing maternal health services. To address maternal mortality in sub-Saharan African countries, policymakers should improve women’s social independence, decision making power and attitude to violence by promoting access to modern energies such as electricity, Liquefied petroleum gas, and bio gas.

Suggested Citation

  • Alastaire Sèna Alinsato & Calixe Bidossessi Alakonon & Nassibou Bassongui, 2024. "Women’s empowerment, modern energy, and demand for maternal health services in Benin," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 279-299, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:ijhcfe:v:24:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10754-024-09368-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10754-024-09368-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10754-024-09368-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10754-024-09368-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    2. Willam Greene, 2005. "Fixed and Random Effects in Stochastic Frontier Models," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 7-32, January.
    3. Dickie, Mark & Messman, Victoria L., 2004. "Parental altruism and the value of avoiding acute illness: are kids worth more than parents?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 1146-1174, November.
    4. Burke, Paul J. & Dundas, Guy, 2015. "Female Labor Force Participation and Household Dependence on Biomass Energy: Evidence from National Longitudinal Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 424-437.
    5. Cockerill, C.A. & Chilton, S.M. & Hutchinson, W. George, 2007. "Household Decision Making Models And The Value Of Child Farm Safety," 81st Annual Conference, April 2-4, 2007, Reading University, UK 7983, Agricultural Economics Society.
    6. Betregiorgis Zegeye & Ziad El-Khatib & Edward Kwabena Ameyaw & Abdul-Aziz Seidu & Bright Opoku Ahinkorah & Mpho Keetile & Sanni Yaya, 2021. "Breaking Barriers to Healthcare Access: A Multilevel Analysis of Individual- and Community-Level Factors Affecting Women’s Access to Healthcare Services in Benin," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-15, January.
    7. Steven F. Koch, 2012. "The Abolition of User Fees and the Demand for Health Care: Re-Evaluating the Impact," Working Papers 201219, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Tarverdi, Yashar, 2019. "Oil and women: A re-examination," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 191-200.
    2. Phumsith Mahasuweerachai, 2013. "Do Parents Benefit from School Health Risk Reduction?," Applied Economics Journal, Kasetsart University, Faculty of Economics, Center for Applied Economic Research, vol. 20(2), pages 75-95, December.
    3. S Anukriti & Catalina Herrera‐Almanza & Praveen K. Pathak & Mahesh Karra, 2020. "Curse of the Mummy‐ji: The Influence of Mothers‐in‐Law on Women in India†," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(5), pages 1328-1351, October.
    4. Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov & Zhang, Shanshan, 2016. "Industrial energy demand and energy efficiency – Evidence from Sweden," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 130-152.
    5. Weiqiang Zhu & Yun Zhang, 2024. "Household Energy Clean Transition Mechanisms under Market Failures: A Government Financing Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-29, July.
    6. DeJaeghere, Joan & Pellowski Wiger, Nancy & Le, Hue & Luong, Phuong & Ngo, Nga Thi Hang & Vu, Thanh Thi & Lee, Jongwook, 2022. "Why do aspirations matter for empowerment?: Discrepancies between the A-WEAI domains and aspirations of ethnic minority women in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    7. Sevias Guvuriro & Frederik Booysen, 2021. "Family‐type public goods and intra‐household decision‐making by co‐resident South African couples," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1629-1647, August.
    8. Raushan Bokusheva & Lukáš Čechura & Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2023. "Estimating persistent and transient technical efficiency and their determinants in the presence of heterogeneity and endogeneity," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(2), pages 450-472, June.
    9. Felix Meier Zu Selhausen & Jacob Weisdorf, 2016. "A colonial legacy of African gender inequality? Evidence from Christian Kampala, 1895–2011," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 69(1), pages 229-257, February.
    10. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Williams, Jonathan, 2013. "The random parameters stochastic frontier cost function and the effectiveness of public policy: Evidence from bank restructuring in Mexico," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 98-108.
    11. Tendai Zawaira & Matthew W. Clance & Carolyn Chisadza, 2020. "Social Institutions and Gender-Biased Outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 2020101, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    12. Rodriguez-Alvarez, Ana & Llorca, Manuel & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2021. "Alleviating energy poverty in Europe: Front-runners and laggards," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    13. Anne Musson & Damien Rousselière, 2020. "Exploring the effect of crisis on cooperatives: a Bayesian performance analysis of French craftsmen cooperatives," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(25), pages 2657-2678, May.
    14. Victor Moutinho & Mara Madaleno, 2021. "Assessing Eco-Efficiency in Asian and African Countries Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    15. Chen, Yi-Yi & Schmidt, Peter & Wang, Hung-Jen, 2014. "Consistent estimation of the fixed effects stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 181(2), pages 65-76.
    16. Carlos Pestana Barros & Zhongfei Chen & Peter Wanke, 2016. "Efficiency in Chinese seaports: 2002–2012," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 18(3), pages 295-316, September.
    17. Gangopadhyay, Partha & Jain, Siddharth & Bakry, Walid, 2022. "In search of a rational foundation for the massive IT boom in the Australian banking industry: Can the IT boom really drive relationship banking?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Alnaa, Samuel Erasmus & Matey, Juabin, 2023. "Women's Access to Post-Secondary Education and Structural Inequalities," MPRA Paper 118327, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Jul 2023.
    19. Saskia Vossenberg, 2014. "Beyond the Critique: How Feminist Perspectives Can Feed Entrepreneurship Promotion in Developing Countries," Working Papers 2014/14, Maastricht School of Management.
    20. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2023. "Female unemployment, mobile money innovations and doing business by females," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Women’s empowerment; Modern energy; Demand for health services;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:kap:ijhcfe:v:24:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10754-024-09368-1. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.