Gender of Household Heads, Assets and Choice of Basic Services

Abstract

The paper examines how assets owned by men- and women-headed households could help in enhancing the choice of different basic social services. It uses the data of a comprehensive field survey conducted by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research in 9,310 households across 23 MiDA intervention districts in Ghana in 2008. A multinomial logistic regression was employed to assess how ownership of a particular asset could enhance the choice of basic social services such as education, health and sanitation. The results of the study indicate that women-headed households control less productive assets and are therefore more likely to depend on the cheaper but lower quality public educational facilities than on the expensive but higher quality private educational facilities. Recommendations were therefore made for policy to ensure that opportunities are provided for women-headed households to own more productive assets.