ABSTRACT

This paper extends the empirical analysis of child health by simultaneously considering the effects and contributions of parental bargaining to the rural–urban child health differential in Tanzania, a country where most communities are patriarchal in nature. We use the Heckman two-step procedure to correct for possible sample selection bias. The results suggest that domestic violence towards female partners increases the probability of child stunting while female autonomy in decision-making and discretion over household resources reduce the probability of child stunting. The significance of these effects are mainly observed in rural than in urban communities. Differences in female autonomy between rural and urban areas account for 5% of the rural–urban gap in child nutrition. The contribution reduces to 4% after correcting for sample selection bias. Thus, empowering rural women is essential in reducing the rural–urban child health differentials.

摘要

本文通过同时考虑父母谈判对坦桑尼亚城乡儿童健康差异的影响和贡献，扩展了儿童健康的实证分析，坦桑尼亚大多数社区本质上都是父权制国家。我们使用 Heckman 两步程序来纠正可能的样本选择偏差。结果表明，针对女性伴侣的家庭暴力会增加儿童发育迟缓的可能性，而女性在决策方面的自主权和对家庭资源的自由裁量权会降低儿童发育迟缓的可能性。这些影响的显着性主要体现在农村而不是城市社区。城乡之间女性自主权的差异占儿童营养城乡差距的 5%。在校正样本选择偏差后，贡献减少到 4%。因此，赋予农村妇女权力对于减少城乡儿童健康差异至关重要。