Intra-Household Bargaining Power and Household Sanitation: Evidence From Kin Groups in Ghana

This paper sheds light on the influence of deep-rooted cultural norms on women's agency in Ghana and their far-reaching implications for households' spending decisions on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). In particular, the paper exploits variation in cultural norms within matrilineal and patrilineal societies across households in rural Ghana to study how the relative intra-household bargaining power of women influences households' expenditure on WASH. It first provides a simple framework based on the unitary and collective household models. Household members may have different preferences for WASH items and investments, which are either private or public to household members. This framework generates a holistic channel through which WASH interventions and policies can be designed for improved WASH in the household, while targeting women. In principle, we find that the marginal effect of women's bargaining power in matrilineal and patrilineal households has differential impacts on households' budget shares allocated toward improved WASH. However, this impact depends on whether the household WASH item is private or public and how costly this item might be.