Consumption Inequality Among Children: Evidence From Child Fostering in Malawi

Abstract

The share of household resources devoted to different children may depend on each child’s gender, birth order, age, or relationship to their caretaker. However, it is challenging to determine whether parents favor certain types of children as consumption data is typically collected at the household level and goods are shared among family members. Recent work has inferred children’s consumption by inverting household-level Engel curves for child-specific goods; but these studies are unable to identify inequality among children in the same household. I develop a new methodology using the collective household framework to identify consumption inequality between different types of children. I apply this method to child fostering in Malawi, where many children live in households away from both of their biological parents. I find little evidence of inequality between foster and non-foster children, with the exception of orphaned foster children whose consumption is 23 percent less than non-orphaned foster children.