Workshop: Women's power, children's job? Managing the human capital portfolio of children as en empowerment strategy in Benin

The economic empowerment of women has become an indisputable long-term objective in development work. It is assumed to lead not only to the strengthening of women's human rights, but also to increased social stability and economic growth. The impact of wo men's bargaining power in promoting household consumption patterns that favor child-related expenditures has been repeatedly documented (see reference list). The research proposed will highlight the economic relationship of reciprocity in the mother-child nexus in societies with weak social safety nets. It will analyze the rich data from a survey recently fielded in Benin, designed specifically to address such issues. Mother's protection of children's human capital investments may come at a price. More th an men, women need the informal social protection of offspring in places where access to cash income, insurance and legal rights to property typically favor men. The proposed research hypothesizes that this affects not only women's fertility choices and i nvestments in their children's human capital, but the very way the women strive to manage the human capital portfolio that their offspring represent. The aim of the research proposed is thus to develop and disseminate knowledge suitable to promote the emp owerment of women through social protection options that depend less on her reproductive behavior. To achieve these aims, analytical work will be carried out in close communication with a group of stakeholders in Benin. The Benin survey has collected data on indicators related to women's reproductive health and a variety of proxies of their empowerment status. The data is cross-sectional, but comprises several retrospective questions suitable for an assessment of her relative state of empowerment before t he age of marriage and child bearing. This should within a well-developed analytical approach help reduce the type of identification problems that normally arise in this type of efforts to establish causality.