Abstract
Empirical studies that analyze the gender gap in livestock ownership are scarce. This article investigates gender differences in livestock holding using five waves of survey data (1998–2010) from Northern Ethiopia. By employing decomposition analysis, we find that female-headed households (FHHs) own significantly fewer livestock compared with male-headed households. Differences in observed characteristics and returns to characteristics account for 29 and 51 per cent of the gender difference, respectively. Lower endowment of land area, male labor and children (aged 6–14) in FHHs are the observed factors causing the disparity. Gender difference is more pronounced in the ownership of large animals than in the ownership of small animals. Findings are relevant for gender-sensitive public interventions that aim to promote livestock accumulation.
Abstract
Rares sont les études empiriques qui analysent des écarts entre les sexes dans la possession de bétail. Ce document s’intéresse aux différences de genres en ce qui concerne la possession de bétail en utilisant cinq vagues de données d’enquête (1998–2010) de l’Ethiopie du Nord. En utilisant une analyse de décomposition on voit que les ménages à chef féminin possèdent de manière signifiante moins de bétail que les ménages à chef masculin. Les différences dans les caractéristiques observées et les résultats des caractéristiques constituent respectivement 29 et 51 pour cent des différences de genres. La dotation inférieure sur la partie du territoire, la main d’œuvre masculine et les enfants (âgés de 6 à 14 ans) dans les ménages à chef féminin sont des facteurs observés à l’origine de la disparité. La différence des sexes est davantage prononcée lorsqu’il s’agit des propriétés des gros animaux que lorsqu’il s’agit de celles des petits animaux. Les découvertes sont significatives lorsqu’il s’agit d’interventions publiques sensibles au genre qui ont pour but de promouvoir l’accumulation du bétail.
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Notes
Superscripts M and F are subsumed in defining each variable.
Dokken (2015) finds that FHHs own smaller land area than do MHHs. The author attributes the difference to disparities in the observed characteristics of FHHs and MHHs as well as gender bias in the allocation of land.
The survey did not include the lowland pastoral areas of the region (Hagos and Holden, 2002).
FHHs can be classified as de facto (husband is away from home) or de jure (divorced, widowed, single or separated) (Kassie et al, 2014). Although this definition has important implications in asset accumulation, our data do not allow us to distinguish between these groups.
The Ethio–Eritrean War occurred between May 1998 and June 2000 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrean%E2%80%93Ethiopian_War).
Table A1 in the appendix contains the weights for TLU.
The switch in the gender of the household head represents a change from male to female (female to male) in the FHH (MHH) regressions. The variable takes a value of zero for households consistently headed by a male (female) and one for households that experienced a switch from female to male (male to female) within the MHH (FHH) regressions.
Results can be obtained upon request.
To test the non-linearity of the model, we log-transformed TLU and found that the results are similar to the reported regression output. Furthermore, we attempted to include squared terms for the continuous explanatory variables and found that they are statistically insignificant, except for the squared term for the age of the household head, which is included in all regressions. Non-linearity was also tested by (a) making TLU per farm size the dependent variable instead of TLU and (b) estimating TLU as a function of labor endowments per farm size. The results were inferior to those yielded by our estimated model in terms of the overall fit of the model (very low R 2). Hence, we report outputs without transformation.
We use Model B when reporting the details of the decomposition analysis.
Number of children might be endogenous in the livestock accumulation decision. Excluding the variable does not, however, alter the main results, and we opt to retain it in the models.
The author employed the 2006 data from the panel survey used in this study.
Because this study considers total land area owned (owner-operated and rented-out land) instead of operational land holding, differences due to farm size take total endowment into account.
Large animals include oxen, cows, heifers, bulls, calves, horses, mules, donkeys and camels. Small animals include sheep, goats and chickens.
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Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by the Norwegian Research Council (1998 data), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2001 data) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) (2003, 2006 and 2010 data). The author would like to thank Stein T. Holden, Fitsum Hagos, Hosaena Ghebru and MSc students for their efforts in data collection, cleaning and entry. This article received valuable comments from Daniel Muluwork Atsbeha, Stein T. Holden and Gerald Shively. Anonymous reviewers also gave constructive comments to the earlier version of the paper.
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Debela, B. Factors Affecting Differences in Livestock Asset Ownership Between Male- and Female-Headed Households in Northern Ethiopia. Eur J Dev Res 29, 328–347 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2016.9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2016.9