Anthropometric measurements for children in nuclear and joint families
- The Indian Journal of Economics
- 399(4), Apr, 2020: p.533-546
Joint household structures in which several generations live together. This is a developing countries specific phenomenon. Such household may confer benefit on the family members through the household public goods. Head of the household exercise greater control over the public good. Generally the oldest-active-male family member is the head of the household. This paper is an attempt to compare anthropometric outcomes of the children living in joint family against those children living in nuclear family. We must keep in mind that there is no standard definition for joint and nuclear family. The way they are defined are context specific and so all definitions have drawbacks if they are viewed in general. So, this paper defined nuclear and joint family for the analysis part particularly. The result is in the favour of the joint family i.e. the health indicators of the children are better in the joint family. – Reproduced