1. Gender and Access to Economic Assets
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
Gender and Access to Economic Assets
Elena Bardasi
The World Bank
October 21, 2008

2. World Bank work on assets
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
World Bank work on assets
Gender and Development Unit program on Collecting data on individual assets
Workshop Spring 2007
World Bank Policy and Research WP #4704
DEC Research Group LSMS Group
Inclusion of individual-level questions in Afghanistan and Tajikistan LSMS Surveys
WBI (in collaboration with UNECE)
Methodological guidelines “Gender and Access to Assets”

3. Access to assets - Relevance
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
Access to assets - Relevance
Assets serve multiple functions:
Consumption — Enjoyment of use.
Social safety net — strengthening households’ and individuals’ ability to cope with shocks.
Income generating mechanism — providing productive capacity and additional consumption, ensuring access to credit, capital, etc.
Accumulation and power — increasing the ability of accumulating more assets and increasing bargaining power.
Assets can therefore be a measure of:
Vulnerability, income generating potential and poverty, bargaining power, etc.

4. Assets - Definition Tangible assets: Intangible assets:
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
Assets - Definition
“stocks of financial, human, natural or social resources that can be acquired, developed, improved and transferred across generations”
(Ford Foundation, 2004)
Tangible assets:
Real: housing, land, livestock, businesses, equipment, tools, vehicles, consumer durables.
Financial: cash, accounts, stocks, pensions.
Natural resources: water, trees, etc.
Intangible assets:
Human capital, intellectual abilities, reputation, social capital (networks, information, etc.)

5. Individual vs. household-level information
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
Individual vs. household-level information
Similarly to income and consumption, assets can be distributed unevenly across household members;
Evidence from scattered survey data and qualitative studies indicates that:
Women less likely than men to own and control assets (esp. productive ones);
Men and women often own different types of assets;
Channels for acquiring assets differ by gender;
Social norms, intra-family arrangements and civil codes can limit the ownership and control of assets by women;
Lack of ownership and control of assets results in greater poverty and economic vulnerability for women (esp. upon divorce, widowhood)

6. Gender dimensions of Asset Ownership
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
Gender dimensions of Asset Ownership
Land Ownership: Women are less likely to own land, and their plots are likely to be smaller and of poorer quality than men’s.
In Cameroon, over 75% of the agricultural work is done by women, but women hold less than 10% of land certificates.
Housing: Rarely do surveys asks which household member(s) owns the dwelling and/or who has title to the house
In Nicaragua, women owned 44% of owned residences, men owned 50%, and 6% were held jointly by both spouses (2001 ENHMNV).
Livestock Ownership: A general pattern is for men to own large livestock (particularly work animals) while women own smaller livestock and yard animals.
In Nicaragua, men owned 23% of livestock and women owned 37%. However, women were more likely to own pigs and poultry, while men were more likely to own donkeys, horses and cattle.

7. Gender dimensions of Asset Ownership
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
Gender dimensions of Asset Ownership
Business Assets: Not much research has focused on gender gaps.
Research in Ghana found that although women were more likely to own business assets, the mean value of the assets owned by men was much higher than that owned by women.
Financial Assets: Research on pensions reveals that men are more likely to hold jobs that provide access to pensions, and among those with pensions, average pensions are larger for men than for women.
Other Physical Assets: Women and men own other physical assets such as vehicles, jewelry and culturally specific items. These types of assets may differ by gender.

8. Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct
What do we need to know
To understand gender patterns of asset ownership, it is important to know who in the household owns, uses, and control a particular asset, as well as the value of the assets.
We need information on all relevant assets
We need information on all the relevant rights
We need information on the value of the assets

9. What do we need to know Individual rights such as…
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
What do we need to know
Individual rights such as…
Ownership data; whether a formal title exists; whether the asset is owned individually or jointly;
Management of the asset (“access”, “control”, “decision making”):
Ability to use;
Ability to rent;
Ability to use as a collateral;
Ability to bequest;
Ability to keep the income originating from the asset;
Ability to sell; …
Secure tenure on the asset;
Origin of the asset (mode and timing of acquisition)

10. Why individual data are not
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
Why individual data are not
commonly collected
Most data on assets are collected only at the household level:
Individual ownership/control are usually not the main focus (in LSMS, Income and exp survey, Household Budget Surveys, DHS, LFS, MICS, etc);
Conceptually difficult to assign all assets to individuals;
Many questions are needed to disentangle all possible ‘rights’ over the asset;
Additional information is required to fully exploit and interpret individual-level information on access to assets (e.g. marital regime)

11. What do we know, esp. for ECA
Capacity Building for GAP Implementation in ECA Region Brussels, Oct , 2008
What do we know, esp. for ECA
Asset
Individual ownership
Individual control
Land
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Tajikistan
Housing
Uzbekistan
Non-agric business
Kazakhstan, Russia
Savings