Poverty and Applied Micro Seminar Series
Matthias Doepke (Northwestern University)
Michele Tertilt (Stanford University)
presented by Matthias Doepke
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Room MC3-570, from 12:30 to 2:00 PM
Empirical evidence suggests that money in the hands of mothers (as opposed to their husbands) benefits children. Does this observation imply that targeting transfers to women is good economic policy? We develop a series of noncooperative family bargaining models to understand what kind of frictions can give rise to the observed empirical relationships. We then assess the policy implications of these models. We find that targeting transfers to women can have unintended consequences and may fail to make children better off. Moreover, different forms of empowering women may lead to opposite results. More research is needed to distinguish between alternative theoretical models.
The paper can be obtained from Paulina Maribel Flewitt (pflewitt@worldbank.org). There will also be copies of the paper at the seminar.
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