Parental bargaining and rural–urban child health differential in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper extends the empirical analysis of child health by simultaneously considering the effects and contributions of parental bargaining to the rural–urban child health differential in Tanzania, a country where most communities are patriarchal in nature. We use the Heckman two-step procedure to correct for possible sample selection bias. The results suggest that domestic violence towards female partners increases the probability of child stunting while female autonomy in decision-making and discretion over household resources reduce the probability of child stunting. The significance of these effects are mainly observed in rural than in urban communities. Differences in female autonomy between rural and urban areas account for 5% of the rural–urban gap in child nutrition. The contribution reduces to 4% after correcting for sample selection bias. Thus, empowering rural women is essential in reducing the rural–urban child health differentials.