Intrahousehold bargaining and resource allocation in developing countries." The World Bank Research Observer 28(1

Many key development outcomes depend on women s ability to negotiate favorable intra-household allocations of resources. Yet it has been difficult to clearly identify which poli-cies can increase women’s bargaining power and result in better outcomes. This paper reviews both the analytical frameworks and the empirical evidence on the importance of women’s bargaining power. It argues that there is sufficient evidence from rigorous studies to conclude that women’s bargaining power does affect outcomes. But in many specific instances, the quantitative evidence cannot rigorously identify causality. In these cases, a combination of quantitative and qualitative evidence may suggest policy levers. Taken together, there are sufficient data in place to support a greatly expanded focus on intrahousehold outcomes and bargaining power. Additional data at the individual level will allow for further and more detailed research. A growing literature supports the current conventional wisdom – namely, that the patterns of evidence suggest that women s education, incomes, and assets all are important aspects of women s bargain-ing power. JEL codes: 012, 020, R2 Over the past several decades, development policy makers have grown increasing-ly aware of the importance of gender issues to development effectiveness. One of the central messages from research on gender is that many key development out-comes seem to depend on women’s ability to negotiate favorable intrahousehold allocations of resources. The development literature suggests that women’s bar-gaining power within households is linked to variables such as the health and ed-ucation of children and the general well-being of women and girls. In addition, women’s bargaining power may affect many aspects of household production, in-cluding the allocation of labor to activities such as housework, agricultural work, and wage work. Since the 1980s, researchers and practitioners have made th