Mother-father resources, marriage payments, and girl-boy health in rural Bangladesh

Agrowing body of literature suggests that men and women allocate resources under their control in systematically different ways. Studies examining the effect of women’s income on household expenditure patterns find that women typically spend a higher proportion of their income on food and health care for children, as well as other goods for general household consumption, than do men.1 Other evidence from developing countries shows that female income more often has a greater impact than male income on infant and child survival probabilities, preschooler nutrition, and child education (Doss 1997; Thomas 1994).