Gender Inequality and Resource Sharing: Evidence from Rural Nicaragua

Abstract

Gender inequality in access to resources remains persistent in rural areas in developing countries. To better understand the mechanisms responsible for gender inequality, we start from the observation that access to resources in rural villages is largely determined by within-village resource sharing, which is embedded in social networks. It is therefore important to study the influence of gender on resource sharing while taking account of the social networks of men and women. To do so, we combine data from a distribution experiment and a network survey in rural Nicaragua. We find that sharing is higher among friends and that women have fewer friends than men. Men share more than women and do not discriminate against women, while women share less with men. These results are robust to controls for friendship ties and gender differences in the reporting of these ties. We attribute these results to the gendered division of labour.