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Exploring gendered behavior in the field with experiments: Why public goods are provided by women in a Nairobi slum

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  • Greig, Fiona
  • Bohnet, Iris

Abstract

Women, and particularly women in all-female groups, appear to be especially adept at providing public goods in developing countries. We use a one-shot Public Goods game to explore the effect of sex and a group's sex composition on the voluntary provision of public goods in a Nairobi slum. Sex heterogeneity hurts the voluntary provision of public goods because women--but not men--contribute less in mixed-sex than same-sex groups. Women contribute as much as men in same-sex groups. This result is driven by women's pessimism and men's optimism about others' contributions in mixed-sex groups rather than by gendered social preferences.

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  • Greig, Fiona & Bohnet, Iris, 2009. "Exploring gendered behavior in the field with experiments: Why public goods are provided by women in a Nairobi slum," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 1-9, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:70:y:2009:i:1-2:p:1-9
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    3. Timothy N. Cason & Lata Gangadharan, 2022. "Gender, Beliefs, and Coordination with Externalities Approach," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1330, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
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    5. Fearon, James D. & Humphreys, Macartan, 2018. "Why Do Women Co-Operate More in Women’s Groups?," EconStor Open Access Articles, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 217-236.
    6. Chamboko, Richard & Cull, Robert & Giné, Xavier & Heitmann, Soren & Reitzug, Fabian & Westhuizen, Morne Van Der, 2021. "The role of gender in agent banking: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
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    8. Xing, Lu & Gonzalez, Angelica & Sila, Vathunyoo, 2021. "Does cooperation among women enhance or impede firm performance?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    9. van der Windt, Peter & Humphreys, Macartan & de la Sierra, Raul Sanchez, 2018. "Gender quotas in development programming: Null results from a field experiment in Congo," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 133, pages 326-345.
    10. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Morone, Andrea & Gil Gallen, Sara, 2020. "Do risk and competition trigger conditional cooperative behavior? Evidence from Public good experiment," MPRA Paper 104465, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Prof dr Erik Stam & Felix Meier zu Selhausen, MSc MA, 2014. "Husbands and Wives. The powers and perils of participation in a microfinance cooperative for female entrepreneurs," Working Papers 2014/20, Maastricht School of Management.
    12. Anastasia Peshkovskaya & Tatiana Babkina & Mikhail Myagkov, 2019. "Gender effects and cooperation in collective action: A laboratory experiment," Rationality and Society, , vol. 31(3), pages 337-353, August.
    13. Arnaud Tognetti & Claire Berticat & Michel Raymond & Charlotte Faurie, 2012. "Sexual Selection of Human Cooperative Behaviour: An Experimental Study in Rural Senegal," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-9, September.
    14. Bjuggren, Per-Olof & Nordström, Louise & Palmberg, Johanna, 2015. "Efficiency of Female Leaders in Family and Non-Family Firms," Ratio Working Papers 259, The Ratio Institute.
    15. Meier zu Selhausen, Felix, 2016. "Women's empowerment in Uganda: colonial roots and contemporary efforts, 1894-2012," Economics PhD Theses 0715, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    16. Masuda, Yuta J. & Waterfield, Gina & Castilla, Carolina & Kang, Shiteng & Zhang, Wei, 2022. "Does balancing gender composition lead to more prosocial outcomes? Experimental evidence of equality in public goods and extraction games from rural Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    17. James D. Fearon & Macartan Humphreys, 2017. "Why do women co-operate more in women's groups?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-163, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Leonardo Becchetti & Pierluigi Conzo & Giacomo Degli Antoni, 2015. "Public disclosure of players’ conduct and common resources harvesting: experimental evidence from a Nairobi slum," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 45(1), pages 71-96, June.
    19. Kok, Lucille & Oosterbaan, Veerle & Stoker, Hester & Vyrastekova, Jana, 2020. "In-group favouritism and social norms: Public goods experiments in Tanzania," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    20. Cason, Timothy N. & Gangadharan, Lata & Grossman, Philip J., 2022. "Gender, beliefs, and coordination with externalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    21. Cavalcanti, Carina & Fleming, Christopher & Leibbrandt, Andreas, 2022. "Risk externalities and gender: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 51-64.

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