In it to win it? Self-esteem and income-earning among couples

This paper investigates whether the relative self-esteem level of spouses can lead to within-household competition for inputs and affect economic gender inequality in the home. Using data on smallholder farmer couples from Côte d’Ivoire, we examine the relationship between spouses’ self-esteem and income-earning in agriculture. Although the link between own self-esteem and crop income-earning is positive, we find that one spouse’s self-esteem is negatively related to the other’s income-earning, particularly income-earning in higher-value export-oriented agriculture. Women’s outcomes are more sensitive both to their own self-esteem (positively) and to their partners’ (negatively) than men’s. This negative relationship is driven by individuals during middle age, when self-esteem is considered most stable. A key channel through which self-esteem appears to matter is by increasing control over household land: a crucial input to agricultural production. In addition to confirming the importance of noncognitive skills for poverty reduction in rural settings, our findings highlight the importance of their impact on intra- and inter-household inequality, especially in the presence of interlocking market failures constraining the supply of inputs to production.