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Forever gender equal and child friendly? Intrahousehold allocations to health in Finland before the Nordic welfare state

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  • Sakari Saaritsa

Abstract

The literature on intrahousehold allocation in European history has typically built on bargaining models originating from Amartya Sen and the South Asian “missing girls” paradigm, testing hypotheses of male earner bias. Often, a 50/50 benchmark has been used, assuming any skew in spending meant discrimination. This study combines external measures of variation in morbidity by age, sex and season with analysis of household health expenditure in Finland in the 1920s. The results suggest that money largely followed sickness rather than gender or earnings. This supports an emerging literature challenging bargaining models and suggesting that significant historical differences may have existed between world regions.

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  • Sakari Saaritsa, 2017. "Forever gender equal and child friendly? Intrahousehold allocations to health in Finland before the Nordic welfare state," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 21(2), pages 159-184.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:21:y:2017:i:2:p:159-184.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ereh/hew021
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    2. Francisco J. Beltrán Tapia & Gabriele Cappelli, 2024. "Missing girls in Liberal Italy, 1861–1921," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(1), pages 185-211, February.
    3. Eric B. Schneider, 2025. "The determinants of child stunting and shifts in the growth pattern of children: A long‐run, global review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 405-452, April.
    4. Mancini, Giulia, 2020. "Breadwinner, bread maker. Gender division of labor and intrahousehold inequality in 1930s rural Italy," MPRA Paper 102142, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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