Gender and Intra-household Allocation of Remittances: Evidence from Estate Sector of Sri Lanka

Using a nationally representative data set, we examine whether the individuals’ bargaining power within households affects allocation of remittances in estate households in Sri Lanka. Two separate fractional logit models were estimated within the Engle’s Curve framework for male headed and female headed households to examine the intra household bargaining on decision making with respect to resource allocation. The results suggest that while female headed households allocate international remittances on food, male headed households allocate such on housing. The results further reveal that internal remittances contribute more for food, communication, entertainment, non-durables, transport and ad hoc purchases of male headed households. The influence of remitters on allocation for the food expenditure is relatively small but it is high for education, housing, health, consumer goods, durables and expenditure for ad hoc purchases, entertainment and transport. Overall, the study concludes that remitter has a greater say over the allocation of household resources over expenditures other than food and housing whereas household head play a significant role in allocating remittances on food and housing.