GENDER, POVERTY AND THE INTRAHOUSEHOLD DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES

Most empirical studies of poverty assume an equal sharing of resources between all household members. There is a growing body of research in dicating that this assumption is not realistic. This paper explores ho w the unequal sharing of resources could potentially affect the measur ement of poverty. Simulations based on micro-data from two countries ( Italy and the U.S.A.) are carried out under the assumption that women ''lose'' and men and children ''gain'' because of unequal sharing in t he household. Our findings suggest that if there is significant intra- household inequality of this type, as some writers have suggested, the n conventional methods of poverty measurement will likely to lead to a serious under-estimate (over-estimate) of the incidence and intensity of female (male) poverty.