Hoddinott and Haddad (1995) show that, in Cote de Ivoire, increasing women’s share of cash income significantly increases the share of household budget allocated to food, controlling for average per capita expenditure, household size and demographic characteristics. Increases in women’s share of cash income are also associated with decreases in the share allocated to alcohol and cigarettes. In Brazil, Thomas (1997) finds that additional income in the hands of women results in greater share of household budget devoted to education, health and nutritionrelated expenditures. For Ghana, Duflo and Udry (2004) show that households spend a larger share of budget on food and on private goods for women in years when the production of women’s crops is higher; conversely, households spend a larger share of the budget on alcohol, tobacco and on goods consumed by men in years when the production of men’s crops is higher.

Given the evidence that women’s control over resources affects expenditure patterns, it is not surprising that there is also evidence that mothers’ greater control over resources improves child outcomes. Using data from rural northeast Brazil, Thomas (1990) shows that increases in women’s unearned income (pensions, social security, workers’ compensation, rent and assets and gifts) relative to that of men increase per capita caloric intake and children’s nutritional status (weight-for-height z-scores). He also finds large impacts on the probability of child survival: the impact of an increase in unearned income owned by women is 20 times that of similar increases in unearned income owned by men. Using data on assets brought to the household upon marriage, Quisumbing and Maluccio (2003) find that in Ethiopia, Indonesia (Sumatra), and South Africa, mothers’ assets tend to have a larger impact on children’s educational attainment than do fathers’ assets.

_Impact of programs._ Instead of relying on asset ownership data from household surveys, several papers have estimated the impact of participation in programs where women are the main beneficiaries of the program. Such programs increase women’s relative contribution to household resources. This change in their control over household resources is free from the potential simultaneity associated with changes in earned income, unearned income or current assets. The only caveat is that certain households, for example those that are poor, might be more likely to participate in these programs; this may affect the estimates of how mothers’ control over resources affects household expenditures.

Two papers, Pitt and Khandker (1998) and Pitt, Khandker, Chowdhury and Millimet (2003), examine the impact of male and female borrowing from microcredit programs in rural Bangladesh on school enrollment and children’s nutritional status, controlling for self-selection in program participation. Pitt and Khandker (1998) find that female borrowing has a larger impact on children’s school enrollment than male borrowing. Pitt et al (2003) find that female borrowing significantly increases children’s height-for-age and arm circumference while male borrowing has no statistically significant effect on these measures of nutritional status. Duflo (2003) exploits a natural experiment in which older adults were given pensions in South Africa. The Old Age Pension program rapidly expanded between 1990 and 1993 when benefits received by blacks grew. In 1993, 80 percent of black women above age 60 and 77 percent of black men above age 65 received pension benefits. Nearly one-third of black children under the age of 5 lived with a pension recipient, most likely a grandparent. Exploiting information on the pension eligibility criteria, Duflo estimates the impact of receiving a pension on child health. She finds 5