I explore a unique exogenous instrument to examine how the intra-familial
position of women influence health outcomes of their children using micro data from
Ghana. Using the 2SLS-IV estimation technique, I build a model of household bargaining
and child health development with perceptions of women regarding wife-beating and
marital rape in the existence of domestic violence laws, in Ghana. Even though the initial
OLS estimates suggest that women‘s participation in decisions regarding purchases of
household consumption goods help to improve child health outcomes, the IV estimates
reveal that the presence of endogeneity underestimates the impact of women‘s bargaining
power on child health outcomes. Our choice of instrument is robust to endogeneity, father
characteristics and residency robustness checks.