Citation
Liu, Haoming (2008). The Impact of Women's Power on Child Quality in Rural China. China Economic Review, 19, 101-15.Abstract
This paper examines the effect of raising mother's controlling power over household resources on child development. One of the major contributions of this paper is that it uses a measure of mother's power that is unrelated with mother's ability. Mother's power is measured by her household headship status, which is defined as a person who plays a decisive role in household affaires. Using household survey data from rural China, this paper shows that children whose mother plays a decisive role in household affairs are generally taller than those whose father plays a decisive role. The evidence suggests that children indeed benefit from women's empowerment.