In a recent article, Ulugbek Aminjonov, Olivier Bargain (Bordeaux School of Economics), and Maira Colacce (IECON Instituto de Economía) provide global evidence on intra-household inequalities in consumption, with new findings on gender gaps and child welfare.
By harmonizing estimates of intra-household resource sharing across 45 countries, the authors construct globally comparable measures of gender inequality and child welfare.
The findings reveal that within households, resources are far from equally shared: women consume around 20 percent less than men, resulting in a 60 percent higher poverty rate. The gap is even more pronounced for children, and these inequalities deepen further in lower-income settings. A decomposition of global consumption inequality also shows that 13–32 percent stems from inequality within households.
The results call for policy approaches that go beyond household-level averages to better identify and reach the most vulnerable.
The paper is available online: Aminjonov, U., Bargain, O., and Colacce, M. (2026). Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Child Poverty in Consumption. The World Bank Economic Review, lhag012.
By harmonizing estimates of intra-household resource sharing across 45 countries, the authors construct globally comparable measures of gender inequality and child welfare.
The findings reveal that within households, resources are far from equally shared: women consume around 20 percent less than men, resulting in a 60 percent higher poverty rate. The gap is even more pronounced for children, and these inequalities deepen further in lower-income settings. A decomposition of global consumption inequality also shows that 13–32 percent stems from inequality within households.
The results call for policy approaches that go beyond household-level averages to better identify and reach the most vulnerable.
The paper is available online: Aminjonov, U., Bargain, O., and Colacce, M. (2026). Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Child Poverty in Consumption. The World Bank Economic Review, lhag012.
