Gender, Asset Ownership and Wealth in Ecuador

1. Gender, Asset Ownership and Wealth in Ecuador Carmen Diana Deere Center for Latin American Studies and Food & Resource Economics University of Florida

2. Presentation 1. Whyassetsimportant for thestudy of genderinequality • Methodology • TheGenderAsset Gap • TheGenderWealth Gap • Comparativeperspectives: Role of marital & inheritanceregimes • Tentativeconclusions

3. 1.Why Assets? Traditionalpovertystudies: poverty as lack of income or consumption • a snapshot of a moment in time Asset-basedpovertystudies: focusonaccumulation of stock of assetsoverhouseholdlifecycle • Full definition: physical & financial capital, natural capital, human capital, social capital • Ourfocusonphysical & financialassets (wealth)

4. Assets: a Key Component of Well-Being Livelihood Strategies Consumption & Savings Full incomes Assets

5. Physical & Financial Assets • Means of production • May generate rent, interest, profit • Have current use value or provide services • Serve as collateral for loans • Buffer during emergencies • can be pawned, mortgaged, sold • Store of wealth • can be passed on to future generations • Provide economic security & reduce probability of falling into chronic poverty • Generate status and social advantage

6. The conceptual problem • Untilrecentlymostasset-basedpovertystudieshavefocusedonhouseholds • But… • Can weassumethatallmembershavethesameaccessto “householdassets”? • Can weassumethatallmembersbenefitequallyfrom “householdassets”?

7. Propositions of Feminist Economics Household and individual welfarenotnecessarilythesame Individual asset ownership related to: • women’s well-being • their fall-back position: how well off they would be in case of household dissolution (separation, divorce, widowhood; choice whether to marry) • their bargaining position within marriage • Role in decision-making • Inversely related to domestic violence • Less likely to fall into poverty

8. The empirical problem • Up until recently, few household surveys collected individual-level information on assets • Gender analysis limited to studying differences between female and male household heads • Inappropriate unit of analysis • Headship analysis underestimates women’s ownership of assets since ignores situation of women in male-headed households (Deere, Alvarado & Twyman 2012)

9. 2. Methodology • Part of 3-country study (Ecuador, Ghana, India) financed by MDG3 Fund of Dutch Foreign Ministry • Ecuador study based at FLACSO, Quito • 6 months of qualitative field work in 3 provinces (focus groups, key informant interviews, asset market study) • Nationally representative survey of 2,892 households (EAFF 2010) • Truncated: doesn’t include the wealthiest • Employed both household and individual-level questionnaires

10. The respondents the main adult couple in dual-headed households (68.5%) the adult male (6.7%) or female (24.8%) in single-headed households

11. Setting- Ecuador divided into 3 regions: sierra, coast & Amazon

12. Setting - Highly urbanized

13. Setting - Middle income country

14. 3. The Gender Asset Gap Different Measures: • Distribution of assets by form of ownership • Unit of analysis is the asset • Forms of ownership include individual and joint • Joint ownership broken down by: • Couple • All household members together • Other household members (a mother & son, etc.; also includes household member(s) with non-household members) • Incidence of asset ownership • Unit of analysis is the asset owner • Measures % of adult men and women who own the asset

15. Distribution of Assets by Form of Ownership

16. Incidence of Ownership by Adults

19. 4. The Gender Wealth Gap Wealth Data Presented: • Market value • Gross rather than net worth • Based on reconciliation of Household and Individual questionnaires + imputed missing values • Weighted by sample expansion factors

20. Distribution of Gross Household Wealth by Sex (US$) Source: EAFF 2010 (rev.)

21. Distribution of Asset Wealth by Sex

22. The Gendered Composition of Wealth

23. Distribution of Household Wealth by Quintiles and Sex Source: EAFF 2010 (rev.)

25. What this means in practice Quintile I or II Quintile IV or V

31. 5. Comparative Perspectives on the Gender Wealth Gap

32. Distribution of Principal Residence by Form of Ownership The Gender Asset Gap Project • Excludes Bangalore

33. The Importance of Marital Regimes • Determine the rules governing property during marriage • Differ according to how assets acquired before and during the marriage are treated • Types: • Separation of property • Partial community property • Full community property

34. Women’s Property Rights in Ecuador • Marital Regime: partial community property

35. Women’s Property Rights in Ghana & India • Marital Regime: separation of property

36. Ecuador: Evidence of Relatively Equitable Inheritance practices

37. 6.Tentative Conclusions 1. Marital & inheritance regimes make a difference • Women in Ecuador relatively better off because of joint community property in marriage & gender equitable inheritance norms 2. Wealth adds a new and important dimension to the study of gender and social inequality 3. Differing composition of wealth by quintile suggests new avenues for research and policy interventions to reduce asset poverty and hence household vulnerability

38. Tentative Conclusions 4. Troubling that female-headed households concentrated in poorest wealth quintiles • Requires further analysis on whether there BECAUSE lost assets when relationship dissolved or other factors 5. Overall, hope to have demonstrated why important to collect individual-level data on asset ownership and wealth

39. For the country studies & comparative report see: http://genderassetgap.iimb.ernet.in Thank you!