The differential impact of economic crisis on men and women, and its connection to intrahousehold bargaining

This paper discusses whether the Asian financial crisis affected men and women differently in Indonesia by estimating the effect of district consumption shock during the crisis on changes in men's and women's working status and assets. I found that in rural areas there seems to be no effect of district consumption shock. In urban areas the fall in district consumption increases women's employment and decreases men’s non-business assets. The effect is both cases is large. I also found that intra-household bargaining may be related to the effect of crises on men and women. Specifically, women who have sole decision-making power on employment prior to the crisis do not need to increase employment as much as a response to the fall in district consumption compared with women without sole decision-making power on employment prior to the crisis.