Contextualizing Individual-Level Asset Data Collection: Evidence from Household Surveys

We present asset ownership estimates for men and women from Georgia, Mongolia, and the Philippines using individual-level data collected through household surveys. The concept of asset ownership includes reported and documented ownership and alienation rights (right to sell and right to bequeath) over property. We find significant gender gaps in property ownership – land, dwelling, and other real estate – for reported and documented owners. Further, our results suggest a positive correlation between documented ownership and alienation rights. Women documented owners are more likely to have some alienation rights and less likely to report having no rights. Women, across countries, are also less likely to be exclusive owners of property than men. We find mixed evidence of divergence of ownership estimates for a sub-sample of households based on whether the information was collected by self-reporting or proxy-reporting. The results reinforce the usefulness of collecting high-quality individual-level asset data for a deeper understanding of economic inequality within the household and for adopting a multidimensional approach to understanding gendered property ownership. We also identify the need for deeper research on marital regimes and their impact on women’s property ownership.