IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/cfcp15/344356.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

From bargaining power to empowerment: Measuring the unmeasurable

Author

Listed:
  • Quisumbing, Agnes R.

Abstract

Measuring power is central to empirical work on intrahousehold and gender relations. Early efforts to test household models focused on measuring spousal bargaining power, usually in models featuring two decisionmakers within the household. Proxy measures for bargaining power included age, education, assets, and “outside options” that could affect spouses’ threat points within marriage. Evidence rejecting the collective model of the household has influenced the design of policies and programs, notably conditional cash transfer programs. Efforts have since shifted to measuring empowerment, drawing on theories of agency and power. Since 2010, several measures of women’s empowerment have been developed, including the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and its variants. A distinct feature of the WEAI, like other counting-based measures, is its decomposability into its component indicators, which makes identifying sources of disempowerment possible. The WEAI indicators also embody jointness of decision-making or ownership, which better reflects actual decision-making within households compared to 2-person bargaining models. This paper reviews how progress in the measurement of power within households has facilitated our understanding of household decision-making and creates new opportunities for programs and policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2024. "From bargaining power to empowerment: Measuring the unmeasurable," IAAE 2024 Conference, August 2-7, 2024, New Delhi, India 344356, International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cfcp15:344356
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.344356
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/344356/files/Quisumbing%20ICAE2024.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.344356?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1992. "Collective Labor Supply and Welfare," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(3), pages 437-467, June.
    2. Orazio P. Attanasio & Valérie Lechene, 2014. "Efficient Responses to Targeted Cash Transfers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(1), pages 178-222.
    3. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1.
    4. François Bourguignon & Martin Browning & Pierre-André Chiappori, 2009. "Efficient Intra-Household Allocations and Distribution Factors: Implications and Identification," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(2), pages 503-528.
    5. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1988. "Rational Household Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(1), pages 63-90, January.
    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. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "Does female empowerment promote economic development?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 309-343, December.
    2. Shelly Lundberg & Aloysius Siow, 2017. "Canadian contributions to family economics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1304-1323, December.
    3. Alexandros Theloudis & Jorge Velilla & Pierre-André Chiappori & J. Ignacio Gimenéz-Nadal & José Alberto Molina, 2022. "Commitment and the Dynamics of Household Labor Supply," Working Papers 2022-042, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    4. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2018. "Empirical Application of Collective Household Labour Supply Model in Iraq," Working Papers 1180, Economic Research Forum, revised 19 Apr 2018.
    5. Ran Gu & Cameron Peng & Weilong Zhang, 2021. "The gender gap in household bargaining power: a portfolio-choice approach," IFS Working Papers W21/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    6. Sam Cosaert & Alexandros Theloudis & Bertrand Verheyden, 2023. "Togetherness in the Household," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 529-579, February.
    7. Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke & Bram De Rock & Philip Verwimp, 2018. "The power of the family: kinship and intra-household decision making in rural Burundi," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 323-346, June.
    8. Laurens Cherchye & Pierre-André Chiappori & Bram De Rock & Charlotte Ringdal & Frederic Vermeulen, 2021. "Feed the children," IFS Working Papers W21/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Chiappori, Pierre-André & Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Theloudis, Alexandros & Velilla, Jorge, 2020. "Intrahousehold Commitment and Intertemporal Labor Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 13545, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2017. "Household Consumption When the Marriage Is Stable," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1507-1534, June.
    11. Jeremy Lise & Ken Yamada, 2019. "Household Sharing and Commitment: Evidence from Panel Data on Individual Expenditures and Time Use," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(5), pages 2184-2219.
    12. Relwendé A. Nikiema & Takeshi Sakurai, 2021. "Intrahousehold distribution of sales revenue and household nutritional outcomes: What if the wives controlled the farm revenue?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(6), pages 1029-1040, November.
    13. Denni Tommasi, 2016. "Household Responses to cash Transfers," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2016-20, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    14. Chiappori, Pierre-André & Molina, José Alberto & Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Velilla, Jorge, 2019. "Intertemporal Labor Supply and Intra-Household Commitment," IZA Discussion Papers 12353, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2019. "A Collective Household Labour Supply Model with Disability: Evidence from Iraq," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 209-225, June.
    16. Cherchye, Laurens & Cosaert, Sam & De Rock, Bram & Kerstens, Pieter Jan & Vermeulen, Frederic, 2018. "Individual welfare analysis for collective households," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 98-114.
    17. Denni Tommasi & Alexander Wolf, 2016. "Overcoming Weak Identification in the Estimation of Household Resource Shares," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2016-12, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. Gast'on P. Fern'andez, 2023. "Does personality affect the allocation of resources within households?," Papers 2307.02918, arXiv.org.
    19. Molina, José Alberto & Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Velilla, Jorge, 2018. "Intra-Household Wealth and Welfare Inequality in the US: Estimations from a Collective Model of Labor Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 11707, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Eleftherios Giovanis, 2018. "Are Women Happier When Their Spouse is Teleworker?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 719-754, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ags:cfcp15:344356. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://iaae-agecon.org/ .

    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.