HeforShe: Bargaining Power, Parental Beliefs, and Parental Investments

Abstract

We estimate a structural model of intra-household allocation of parental investments in children. We combine novel measures of verbal investments and beliefs about the returns to investment for both mothers and fathers with hyper-local variation in female bargaining power stemming from ancestral inheritance practices. Female bargaining power influences the quantity and quality of paternal investments. Specifically, fathers speak more to children, and in a more engaging way, when women have more bargaining power, but only when their wife expects investments to improve child language. Our results single out the role of economic power in mothers' ability to elicit domain-specific paternal investment. Policy simulations show large increases in paternal investments from a female empowerment policy.