– including two in Sub-Saharan Africa – Quisumbing and Maluccio (2003) find persistent evidence of marital asset inequality. Dillon & Quiñones (2011) analyze the long-term changes in relative asset positions of women and men in Kaduna State, Nigeria, and find evidence of growing asset inequality. Men tended to enjoy higher relative price increases on the assets – particularly livestock – that they held, while the value of women’s assets, such as jewelry and durables, did not grow as quickly.

Second, the inequality in ownership, control, and use of productive assets can lead to allocative inefficiencies, which are costly in terms of lost economic output and productivity growth. In Ghana, Goldstein and Udry (2008) show that women’s insecure property rights can lead to economic inefficiencies and a considerable loss of potential output. Women have lower social and political standing and thus face a higher risk of asset expropriation. As a consequence, women under-invest in their land and realize substantially lower agricultural yields than their husbands on average (Goldstein and Udry 2008).<sup>5</sup> Duflo (2012) also links the costly and inefficient gender allocation of resources on agricultural plots in Burkina Faso (Udry 1996) to women's relative lack of property rights, noting that a wife could rent her land to her husband to increase – via more intensive input use – overall household productivity. Yet the wife’s relatively weaker property rights prevent her from pursuing such an arrangement that could make all household members better off.

Third, this inequality in ownership, control, and use of productive assets can further impede women’s control over household resources and spending decisions, with welfare implications for this generation and the next one (World Bank 2011). While the first wave of evidence on the links between women’s control over resources and within-household outcomes relied mostly on data sets that could not account for unobserved factors,<sup>6</sup> , recent evidence establishes a stronger causal relationship.<sup>7</sup> For example, a growing literature provides strong evidence of the lack of income pooling within households in developing countries (Attanasio and Lechene 2002; Qian 2008), including in Sub-Saharan Africa.<sup>8</sup> Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire shows that women and men respond differently to exogenous changes in relative income: household spending tilts more toward food expenditure and female private goods following an increase in women’s agricultural income, while a comparable increase in men’s income is instead put towards alcohol, tobacco, and male private goods (Duflo and Udry 2004). Evidence from South Africa suggests that there may also be gender differences in preferences.<sup>9</sup> Duflo (2003) examines the impact of a pension program in the country and uncovers a differential impact on boys and girls: putting resources in the hands of women led to improved anthropometric status of girls (though this effect is only significant for maternal

> 5 Women’s insecurity and limited usufruct rights may also constrain the efficient functioning of asset markets, particularly for land (Holden and Bezabih 2008; Holden, Deininger, and Ghebru 2011).

> 6 For example, evidence from Ghana suggests that a woman’s asset position within the household can influence that household’s spending pattern. Doss (2006), in an analysis of two rounds of nationally representative data from Ghana, finds that a woman’s relative share of land, savings, and business assets was significantly correlated with household expenditure decisions. An increase in women’s relative asset share (particularly land assets) was associated with an increased share of household spending on food and education.

> 7 Doepke and Tertilt (2011) summarize the key findings from the literature on women’s access to resources and household expenditure patterns. They find robust evidence that: households do not pool income; an increased female budget share is associated with increased spending on children; and an increased male budget share is linked to increased spending on alcohol and tobacco (Doepke and Tertilt 2011).

> 8 Helping deepen women’s asset base can also help cushion them from shocks, particularly in countries such as Ethiopia, where spouses do not pool risk (Dercon and Krishnan 2000).

9 Doepke et al. (2012) point out that perceived gender differences in preferences could instead be driven by existing economic and legal gender inequalities. For example, women – who face higher barriers to saving than men – may instead spend more on their children as a form of self-insurance for the elder years.

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