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Household Decision Making in Rural China: Using Experiments to Estimate the Influences of Spouses

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  • Fredrik Carlsson

    ()

  • Haoran He

    ()

  • Peter Martinsson

    ()

  • Ping Qin

    ()

  • Matthias Sutter

    ()

Abstract

Many economic decisions are made jointly within households. This raises the question about spouses? relative influence on joint decisions and the determinants of relative influence. Using a controlled experiment (on inter-temporal choice), we let each spouse first make individual decisions and then make joint decisions with the other spouse. We use a random parameter probit model to measure the relative influence of spouses on joint decisions. In general, husbands have a stronger influence than wives. However, in richer households and when the wife is older than the husband, we find a significantly stronger influence of the wife on joint decisions.

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Paper provided by Faculty of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck in its series Working Papers with number 2010-20.

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Length: 35
Date of creation: Jul 2010
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Handle: RePEc:inn:wpaper:2010-20

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Keywords: household decision making; spouses; relative influence; random parameter model; field experiment; time preferences;

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References

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  1. Glenn W. Harrison & John A. List, 2004. "Field Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(4), pages 1009-1055, December.
  2. Qian, Nancy, 2006. "Missing Women and the Price of Tea in China: The Effect of Sex-Specific Earnings on Sex Imbalance," CEPR Discussion Papers 5986, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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  10. Nesha Beharry-Borg & David Hensher & Riccardo Scarpa, 2009. "An Analytical Framework for Joint vs Separate Decisions by Couples in Choice Experiments: The Case of Coastal Water Quality in Tobago," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(1), pages 95-117, May.
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  15. Munro, Alistair & Bateman, Ian J. & McNally, Tara, 2008. "The family under the microscope: an experiment testing economic models of household choice," MPRA Paper 8974, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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