https://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ophi-wp-58.pdf

The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index

Many studies explore the relationship between income and nutrient intake. The focus upon households as a whole emerges from a research tradition rooted in the theoretical model of the family and the household proposed by the new household economics which has strongly influenced recent research on the family in both developed and developing countries. This mode however is overly simplistic where applied uniformly to diverse cultures. The author therefore considers the validity of these assumptions of uniform applicability with respect to the family forms and the nutrient available to children found in selected countries in Latin America and West Africa. The author uses demographic and health survey data from Ghana Mali Senegal northeast Brazil Colombia and the Dominican Republic with models of the family proposed by this new household economics to derive hypotheses regarding food available to young children in various household and family arrangements. It is concluded that these models unrealistically predict food and health care available to children because they assume that income or opportunity given to 1 family member translates into improvement in the welfare of all other members. The level of altruism toward children instead varies across cultures families and households. The author points out that these findings demonstrate the urgent need to develop alternative models of the family and notes that Nashs bargaining models have presented the most persistent challenge to neoclassical models of the family.

Children at Risk: The Role of Family Structure in Latin America and West Africa

Marriage is an event of great social and economic significance in most societies. Despite the centrality of marriage in an individual’s life history the literature on marriage patterns pays little attention to men. This paper examines trends in schooling age and assets at marriage for both men and women and spousal differences in these variables in six countries—Bangladesh Ethiopia Guatemala Mexico the Philippines and South Africa—using comparable data sets and methodologies. Descriptive statistics show that the correlation between personal characteristics is increasing compared to the correlation between parental characteristics indicating greater personal choice in marriage. Multivariate results indicate that both husbands and wives are better educated and older in more recent marriages. Husbands’ assets at marriage increase through time in four countries and remain constant in two. Wives’ assets at marriage increase in three countries remain constant in two and decline in one. Husband educational advantage at marriage has decreased in three countries has not changed in two and has increased in one. Husband age seniority has decreased in four countries and remained constant in two. However the distribution of assets at marriage continues to favor husbands. In three of the six countries studied the husband–wife asset difference has not changed through time—and therefore continues to favor husbands—and has increased in the other three. While the reduction of husband–wife gaps in schooling and age may improve the balance of power within the family persistent differences in assets in favor of husbands may have important effects on family well-being. Lastly the implications of increased personal choice and delayed marriage on the institution of marriage itself deserve further investigation. (authors)

/pdf/marriage-in-transition-evidence-on-age-education-and-assets-31nh5ni5jf.pdf

Marriage in transition: Evidence on age, education, and assets from six developing countries

Most social research on ageing in Asia has focused on the support provided by adult children to their parents, and thereby suggests that as a matter of course older people are in need of support. This paper offers a different perspective. Drawing on ethnographic and quantitative data from a village in East Java, it examines the extent of older people’s dependence on others and highlights the material and practical contributions that they make to their families. It is shown that only a minority of older people are reliant on children or grandchildren for their daily survival. In the majority of cases, the net flow of inter-generational support is either downwards – from old to young – or balanced. Far from merely assisting with childcare and domestic tasks, older people are often the economic pillars of multi-generational families. Pension and agricultural incomes serve to secure the livelihoods of whole family networks, and the accumulated wealth of older parents is crucial for launching children into economic independence and underwriting their risks. Parental generosity does not generally elicit commensurate reciprocal support when it is needed, leaving many people vulnerable towards the end of their lives.

/pdf/inter-generational-family-support-provided-by-older-people-3uo2f36snf.pdf

Inter-generational family support provided by older people in Indonesia.

Data on 661 married couples obtained from the 1988 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey were analyzed by multiple logistic regression to examine the attitudes and preferences of couples towards family size family limitation and contraceptive use as well as the degree of communication and discussion between husbands and wives. Both the husband and wife in 77% of couples shared like attitudes toward family planning. 73% of these couples approved of family planning. Yet 39% of the wives either did not know or misreported their husbands attitude. Even though 76% agreed that they wanted no more children only 44% reported the same responses on ideal family size. Only 35% of wives and 39% of husbands who knew at least one contraceptive method had talked to their spouse about family planning in the last 12 months. Wifes approval of family planning had a significant positive effect on current contraceptive use (relative risk [RR] = 11.75; p < 0.01) when the researcher controlled for background factors. While husbands approval did not have a significant effect (RR = 1.81). Significant independent variables of current contraceptive use included urban residence (RR = 1.53; p < 0.01) wifes attitude toward family planning (RR = 8.85; p < 0.01) and discussion of family planning between spouses (RR = 2.15-2.17; p < 0.01). These findings suggest that due to the considerable discrepancies between responses of wives and husbands one needs to interview both men and women to improve understanding of family planning decision making. They also indicate that the attitudes and preferences of the wife carry more weight in determining whether to adopt contraceptive than do those of the husband.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2133433

How attitudes toward family planning and discussion between wives and husbands affect contraceptive use in Ghana.

MCNICOLL AND CAIN ARGUE AGAINST SEEING economic-demographic relationships in an institution-free way, yielding technocratic policy conclusions that are straightforward and conflict-free.' Institutions, conflicts, and inequalities are central to understanding rural development. In this essay I shall concentrate particularly on the institution of the family and generally on issues of conflict as well as congruence of interests. The presentation is largely theoretical (even though empirical illustrations will be given), and I shall try to place the role of the family as an institution in a wide theoretical framework. Social relations between different persons typically involve both conflict and congruence of interest. Economic analysis of social problems cannot go very far without coming to grips with both the combative and the cooperative aspects of interpersonal and intergroup relations. It is, however, possible to emphasize one of these two aspects more than the other, and indeed it is easy to see that various economists have chosen a rather different balance of what to stress and what to neglect. Adam Smith's focus on the congruent aspects of interests of different people is, of course, well known, with his pointer to the advantages that each gains from the other's pursuit of self-interest.2 On the other hand, Marx's analysis of class conflicts and exploitation focused particularly on combative aspects of intergroup relations.3 Of course, Marx too devoted much attention to exploring the congruent elements in social relations (e.g., the widely shared benefits that capitalist development may bring to a feudal society). Indeed, both elements figure in the writings of all the major economists, and the differences lie in the emphasis placed on congruence versus conflict. Walras's investigation of the mutual benefits from the general equilibrium of production and trade, and Keynes's study of how the effective demand of one may create employment for another, primarily focus on elements of congruence. In contrast, Ricardo's analysis of the adverse effects of profitable machinery on workers' employment,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2807922

G. McNicoll

Papers

Co-operation, Inequality and the Family