Bargaining Power Index - A Distributional Approach
Abstract
In the context of widening inequalities and persistent gender stratifications, accurate measurement of individual agency within households has become increasingly important for understanding the ethical and distributive dimensions of economic life.Bargaining power within households — the dynamics that influence decision-making, resource allocation, and individual well-being — has long been a central concern in fields such as household economics and development studies.
While recent surveys in developing countries often include decision-making questions over expenditures, labor, and time use, existing approaches in economic literature typically aggregate these into composite indices that inadequately capture the nuances of decision making process and bargaining power.
This paper highlights limitations of these existing indexes and proposes a distribution-sensitive alternative: an index that assigns weights based on the probabilistic distribution of responses. By giving greater emphasis to deviations from dominant/mainstream social norms, our approach captures meaningful variations and deviations in individual agency relative to the social norms. It recognizes that conformity to or divergence from normative patterns carries substantive informational value about power, constraint, and voice within households. Our approach thus offers a more ethically attuned and analytically rigorous tool for examining how resource distribution, gendered power structures, and social norms intersect to shape economic outcomes — a critical perspective amidst today's deepening inequalities and fraying institutional supports.