Presentation at Dhaka Gender Workshop, June 2014

1. Impact of Shocks on Gender Differentiated
Asset Dynamics in Bangladesh
Muntaha Rakib, Julia Anna Matz
June 18, 2014
Corresponding author: muntaha_rakib@yahoo.com

2. Outline
• Background
• Objectives
• Data and sampling
• Results
• Conclusions
• Policy suggestions
• Some preliminary results from ongoing paper
2

3. • To analyze economic well-being of a household or a
community, asset analysis is necessary
– converted into cash for consumption
– collateral in the credit market
– buffer stock against shocks
• Goal of gender responsive development
– not necessarily to ensure equal control over assets
– but that both have control over important assets
3
Background
Why asset and gender analysis?

4. Why assets and shocks are gender
differentiated
• Types of asset differ by different types of ownership
• husband
• wife
• joint
• Men and women experience shocks differently due to
• different roles and responsibilities
• different ability to withstand shocks
• some shocks only affect women (divorce, death of husband etc.)
(White 1992, Antonopoulos and Floro 2005. Quisumbing et al. 2011, Frankenberg et al. 2003; Quisumbing
2009, Goldstein 1999; Dercon and Krishnan 2000; Duflo and Udry 2003).
4
Background cont.

5. How assets and shocks are interlinked
• Control over assets
• increases income
• reduces vulnerability to shocks
• helps in moving out of poverty
• Shocks affect assets
 force selling tangible assets
 foregoing future investment in non-tangible assets
 trapped in poverty
5
Background cont.

6. Which assets and shocks?
Assets
• Natural capital
– Land
• Physical capital
– Consumer durables
– Agricultural tools
– Vehicles
– Jewelry
• Livestock
– Poultry
– Cattle
• Financial capital
– Outstanding credit
Shocks
• Climatic shocks
– Flood
– Cyclone
– Drought
• Other negative shocks
– Dowry/wedding expenses
– Death/illness
• Positive shocks
– Dowry receipt/inheritance
– Remittances
6
Context

7. Objectives
• To explore the impact of shocks on intrahousehold asset
dynamics and gender differentiated ownership and to
look at which assets husbands and wives try to keep
intact within their asset portfolio
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8. Data and Sampling
• Two waves of panel data
• Bangladesh Climate
Change Adaptation
Survey 2010 is used as a
baseline
• 800 agricultural
households in 40 unions
(administrative units) were
surveyed in 2010
• Resurvey was conducted
on the same from June to
October 2012 to construct
a panel
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9. Asset ownership and prevalence of shocks
• Households were able to accumulate land, livestock, and nonland physical assets
between the two survey rounds
• Women held fewer livestock and physical assets than their husbands
• Husbands own 96 percent of the households’ total land area
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Type of shock Mean
Share of households affected by weather shocks according to
household/community reports
Flood 0.38/0.32
Drought 0.45/0.52
Cyclone/tornado 0.31/0.29
Share of households affected by other negative shocks
Death or illness of a household member 0.26
Dowry or wedding expenses 0.05
Share of households affected by positive shocks
Receipt of a remittance 0.20
Receipt of a dowry or inheritance 0.04
• Reported household and community-level shocks, between 2010 and 2012

10. Impact of shocks on intrahousehold asset dynamics
10
Impact of shocks on the comprehensive asset index (fixed effects estimates)
Results
*, **, *** Significant at 10%; 5% and 1% respectively
Note: Standard errors are clustered at the household level and are given in parentheses

11. 11
Impact of shocks on intra household asset dynamicsResults
*, **, *** Significant at 10%; 5% and 1% respectively. Note: Standard errors are clustered at the household
level and are given in parentheses
Land Physical Livestock
Husband Wife Joint Husband Wife Joint Husband Wife Joint
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
Flood -0.025
(0.343)
-0.096
(0.074)
0.266
(0.170)
-0.013
(0.010)
-0.001
(0.004)
-0.003
(0.006)
-0.089
(0.067)
-0.142*
(0.085)
-0.043
(0.042)
Drought 0.229
(0.297)
-0.039
(0.081)
0.154
(0.187)
-0.012
(0.010)
-0.005
(0.004)
-0.012**
(0.005)
-0.086
(0.072)
0.079
(0.067)
0.045
(0.035)
Cyclone 0.598**
(0.278)
-0.132
(0.089)
0.352*
(0.183)
-0.021**
(0.009)
-0.001
(0.004)
0.003
(0.005)
0.065
(0.069)
0.010
(0.072)
-0.040
(0.040)
Death/ illness -0.019
(0.239)
0.058
(0.075)
0.054
(0.100)
-0.001
(0.005)
0.009***
(0.003)
0.005
(0.003)
-0.003
(0.042)
-0.011
(0.041)
-0.006
(0.023)
Dowry payment -0.403
(0.592)
-0.007
(0.042)
-0.005
(0.183)
-0.005
(0.013)
0.008
(0.007)
0.003
(0.008)
-0.166
(0.110)
-0.053
(0.125)
-0.121**
(0.057)
Remittance -0.918***
(0.278)
0.013
(0.083)
-0.283**
(0.126)
0.009
(0.008)
0.006*
(0.004)
0.003
(0.004)
0.052
(0.061)
0.141**
(0.067)
0.024
(0.025)
Inheritance/ dowry receipts 1.121**
(0.524)
-0.174
(0.218)
0.018
(0.182)
-0.023*
(0.013)
-0.002
(0.006)
0.012*
(0.007)
0.122
(0.104)
0.004
(0.113)
0.023
(0.023)
R-squared 0.031 0.011 0.026 0.033 0.021 0.020 0.023 0.030 0.018
N 1,356 1,356 1,356 1,356 1,356 1,356 1,356 1,356 1,356
Impact of shocks on the natural, physical and livestock assets (fixed effects
estimates)

12. Financial assets
• Flood and cyclone reduce credit
– covariate
– less collateral
• Droughts increase credit
– area specific
– seasonal in nature
• Remittances are associated with more credit
– more collateral available
12
Results

13. Impact of shocks on disaggregated physical capital by
type of ownership
Husbands
– remittances increase stock of agricultural tools and consumer
durables instead of jewelry and poultry
– flood and cyclone negatively affect cattle and consumer
durables
Wives
– remittance receipts increase jewelry and poultry rather than
consumer durables and agricultural tools
– flood and cyclone reduce stock of poultry
– drought and dowry negatively affect consumer durables and
vehicles
Joint
– husbands and wives jointly diversify asset portfolio towards
jewelry and cattle from agriculture tools and vehicles
– dowry payment reduces joint poultry
13
Results

14. Conclusions
• Cyclone negatively affect husbands in general
• Negative non-weather shocks adversely affect both
husbands’ and wives’ assets
• Sale of livestock is commonly used as a coping
mechanism
• Jointly owned assets are protected, other than for
coping with dowry and drought, which are anticipated in
terms of time but not in terms of severity
• Husbands’ Income generating tools such as land,
vehicles and agricultural assets are generally protected
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15. Policy suggestions
• Initiating programs to protect women’s assets
– those are generally found to be beneficial to children’s well-being (health, education, and
nutrition)
• Encouraging women’s ownership of assets that are not readily sold to
cope with shocks
– assets increase female bargaining power which is associated with more social and human
capital of women
• Reforming and enforcing inheritance laws to protect female inheritance
– land ownership enables women to be more active in financial markets
• Laws prohibiting dowry practice should be strictly implemented
– awareness on this issue together with the provision of credit could enhance the asset
holdings of both spouses
• Policy design needs to incorporate the protection of gendered ownership
of assets in the event of shocks
– Social protection programs for instance
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16. Acknowledgments
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