The Role of Mothers' Preferences in Children's Schooling Outcomes: Allocations under Varied Household Structures

Joyce J. Chen, Harvard University

Using household headship and mother’s marital status as a proxy for control over income, this paper studies the difference between children’s schooling outcomes under varied household structures. Examination of differences between sons and daughters may reveal a difference between men’s and women’s preferences for equality within the household. I explore the plausibility of using widowhood as a random shock to household structure, while controlling for household fixed effects. Segregated samples of currently unmarried women, both in autonomous households and co-residing with extended kin, are selected from the Indonesian Population Census and contrasted with a subsample of married, dual parent households. These samples are designed to control for endogenous household formation and to represent a spectrum of households where women have varying degrees of control over income. Preliminary analysis indicates that differential gender-specific effects are more favorable to daughters in households where mothers have increased control over income, but this compensation effect is mediated by resource constraints.