Gender bias, credit constraints and time allocation in rural India
Rose, E.
Economic Journal London 110(465): 738-758
2000
DOI: 10.1111/1468-0297.00563Document Number: 299704
This paper examines the impact of a child's gender on the time allocation of rural Indian households for the five-year period subsequent to its birth. A theoretical model generates predictions for the effect of the birth of a boy relative to a girl (i.e., the gender shock) on household behaviour when the household is liquidity constrained and when it is not. The results from the empirical analysis are consistent with the case in which poorer households are liquidity constrained and less poor households are not. The interpretation of the finding that women in both groups of households work less subsequent to the birth of a boy relative to a girl differs in these two cases.