What If She Educates More? Examining the Dynamics of Intrahousehold Bargaining Power

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the dynamics of intrahousehold bargaining power within the collective household framework, focusing on women's relative educational advantages, that is, when women are more educated than their husbands. Using nationally representative data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we examine how relative educational advantages affect women's bargaining power while distinguishing it from the role of absolute education. The results show that wives who out‐educate their husbands have significantly greater bargaining power than equally educated couples, while husbands who out‐educate their wives are associated with significantly lower bargaining power for their wives. Instrumental variable (IV) regressions, including Lewbel's IV approach, and a series of robustness checks lend support to the causal interpretation of these findings. Moreover, women's relative educational advantages exert a stronger effect on bargaining power than their absolute educational attainment. Mediation analyses further suggest that this effect operates partially through women's enhanced economic contributions to the household and shifts in gender ideology. Together, these findings underscore the value of considering both resource endowment and gender display perspectives, and of distinguishing between relative and absolute education, in understanding family power structures.