Abstract
This chapter examines the effect of women’s participation in household decisions on living standards. In the logic of cooperative theories, the chapter is based on the assumption that the cooperative decision-making process is beneficial for the household’s utility function. Data from the Demographic and Health Survey of Benin, Mali and Togo are used in order to evaluate the impact of women’s bargaining power on household living standards. Results from the study indicate a convergence of the empirical results obtained in these three countries and highlight the beneficial effect of the participation of women in decisions on the standard of living of households. In addition, it appears that variables such as education level, spousal age and place of residence have significant effects on the standard of living of households.
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Notes
- 1.
National Institute of Statistics and Economic Analysis (2013).
- 2.
http://www.instat-mali.org/contenu/eq/rana14pas1_eq.pdf visited on November 7, 2017.
- 3.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9mographie_du_Togo visited on November 7, 2017.
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Kponou, M.K.C. (2020). Women’s Bargaining Power and Households’ Living Standards in West Africa: Evidence from Benin, Togo and Mali. In: Konte, M., Tirivayi, N. (eds) Women and Sustainable Human Development. Gender, Development and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14935-2_17
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