IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v54y2019i1p225-254.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Asymmetry of Information within Family Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Joachim De Weerdt
  • Garance Genicot
  • Alice Mesnard

Abstract

This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within 712 extended family networks from Tanzania. Using cross-reports on asset holdings, we construct measures of misperception of living standards among households within the same network. We contrast altruism, pressure, exchange, and risk sharing as motives to transfer in simple models with asymmetric information. Testing the model predictions in the data uncovers the active role played by recipients of transfers. Our findings suggest that recipients set the terms of the transfers, either by exerting pressure on donors or because they hold substantial bargaining power in their exchange relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Joachim De Weerdt & Garance Genicot & Alice Mesnard, 2019. "Asymmetry of Information within Family Networks," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(1), pages 225-254.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:54:y:2019:i:1:p:225-254
    Note: DOI: 10.3368/jhr.54.1.0616.8023R1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/225
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Becker, Gary S, 1974. "A Theory of Social Interactions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1063-1093, Nov.-Dec..
    2. David Coady & Margaret Grosh & John Hoddinott, 2004. "Targeting of Transfers in Developing Countries : Review of Lessons and Experience," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14902.
    3. Catia Batista & Gaia Narciso, 2018. "Migrant Remittances and Information Flows: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(1), pages 203-219.
    4. Nava Ashraf, 2009. "Spousal Control and Intra-household Decision Making: An Experimental Study in the Philippines," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1245-1277, September.
    5. Cynthia Kinnan, 2022. "Distinguishing Barriers to Insurance in Thai Villages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(1), pages 44-78.
    6. Ganesh Seshan & Robertas Zubrickas, 2017. "Asymmetric Information about Migrant Earnings and Remittance Flows," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 24-43.
    7. Orazio P. Attanasio & Nicola Pavoni, 2011. "Risk Sharing in Private Information Models With Asset Accumulation: Explaining the Excess Smoothness of Consumption," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(4), pages 1027-1068, July.
    8. Rapoport, Hillel & Docquier, Frederic, 2006. "The Economics of Migrants' Remittances," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 17, pages 1135-1198, Elsevier.
    9. Pamela Jakiela & Owen Ozier, 2016. "Does Africa Need a Rotten Kin Theorem? Experimental Evidence from Village Economies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(1), pages 231-268.
    10. Christopher F Baum & Mark E. Schaffer & Steven Stillman, 2007. "Enhanced routines for instrumental variables/GMM estimation and testing," CERT Discussion Papers 0706, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    11. Mittag, Nikolas, 2012. "New methods to estimate models with large sets of fixed effects with an application to matched employer-employee data from Germany," FDZ Methodenreport 201201_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    12. Chort, Isabelle & Gubert, Flore & Senne, Jean-Noël, 2012. "Migrant networks as a basis for social control: Remittance incentives among Senegalese in France and Italy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 858-874.
    13. Fafchamps, Marcel & Gubert, Flore, 2007. "The formation of risk sharing networks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 326-350, July.
    14. Cox, Donald & Fafchamps, Marcel, 2008. "Extended Family and Kinship Networks: Economic Insights and Evolutionary Directions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 58, pages 3711-3784, Elsevier.
    15. Carolina Castilla & Thomas Walker, 2013. "Is Ignorance Bliss? The Effect of Asymmetric Information between Spouses on Intra-household Allocations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 263-268, May.
    16. Ambler, Kate, 2015. "Don't tell on me: Experimental evidence of asymmetric information in transnational households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 52-69.
    17. Kathleen Beegle & Joachim De Weerdt & Stefan Dercon, 2011. "Migration and Economic Mobility in Tanzania: Evidence from a Tracking Survey," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 1010-1033, August.
    18. McKenzie, David & Gibson, John & Stillman, Steven, 2013. "A land of milk and honey with streets paved with gold: Do emigrants have over-optimistic expectations about incomes abroad?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 116-127.
    19. Thomas Joseph & Yaw Nyarko & Shing-Yi Wang, 2018. "Asymmetric Information and Remittances: Evidence from Matched Administrative Data," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 58-100, April.
    20. Kazianga, H., 2006. "Motives for household private transfers in Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 73-117, February.
    21. Ambler, Kate, 2013. "Don’t tell on me: Experimental evidence of asymmetric information in transnational households:," IFPRI discussion papers 1312, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    22. Cox, Donald & Eser, Zekeriya & Jimenez, Emmanuel, 1998. "Motives for private transfers over the life cycle: An analytical framework and evidence for Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 57-80, February.
    23. Altonji, Joseph G & Hayashi, Fumio & Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1997. "Parental Altruism and Inter Vivos Transfers: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1121-1166, December.
    24. de Laat, Joost, 2014. "Household allocations and endogenous information: The case of split migrants in Kenya," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 108-117.
    25. repec:iab:iabfme:201201(en is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Caeyers, Bet & Chalmers, Neil & De Weerdt, Joachim, 2012. "Improving consumption measurement and other survey data through CAPI: Evidence from a randomized experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 19-33.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brian Dillon & Joachim De Weerdt & Ted O’Donoghue, 2021. "Paying More for Less: Why Don’t Households in Tanzania Take Advantage of Bulk Discounts?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(1), pages 148-179.
    2. Ambler, Kate, 2015. "Don't tell on me: Experimental evidence of asymmetric information in transnational households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 52-69.
    3. Grimm, Michael & Hartwig, Renate & Reitmann, Ann-Kristin & Bocoum, Fadima Yaya, 2021. "Inter-household transfers: An empirical investigation of the income-transfer relationship with novel data from Burkina Faso," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    4. Orazio Attanasio & Sonya Krutikova, 2020. "Consumption Insurance in Networks with Asymmetric Information," NBER Working Papers 27290, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Genicot, Garance, 2016. "Two-sided altruism and signaling," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 92-97.
    6. Catia Batista & Janis Umblijs, 2016. "Do migrants send remittances as a way of self-insurance?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(1), pages 108-130.
    7. De Arcangelis, Giuseppe & Joxhe, Majlinda & McKenzie, David & Tiongson, Erwin & Yang, Dean, 2015. "Directing remittances to education with soft and hard commitments: Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment and new product take-up among Filipino migrants in Rome," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 197-208.
    8. Marlon Seror, 2015. "Modeling and Measuring Information Asymmetry in the Context of Senegalese Migrants' Remittances," Working Papers DT/2015/23, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    9. Kaufmann, Marc & Machado, Joël & Verheyden, Bertrand, 2021. "Why Do Migrants Stay Unexpectedly? Misperceptions and Implications for Integration," IZA Discussion Papers 14155, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. repec:lic:licosd:39617 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Rozenn Hotte & Karine Marazyan, 2017. "Demand for Insurance and Within-Kin-Group Marriage: Evidence from a Western African Country," Working Papers 20170005, UMR Développement et Sociétés, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement.
    12. Eliana Carranza & Aletheia Donald & Florian Grosset & Supreet Kaur, 2022. "The Social Tax: Redistributive Pressure and Labor Supply," NBER Working Papers 30438, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Sangeetha Madhavan & Donatien Beguy & Shelley Clark, 2018. "Measuring extended families over time in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya: Retention and data consistency in a two-round survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(44), pages 1339-1358.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kate Ambler & Susan Godlonton, 2020. "Information Asymmetries and Remittance Recipient Income: A Field Experiment in Malawi," Department of Economics Working Papers 2020-12, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    2. Catia Batista & Janis Umblijs, 2016. "Do migrants send remittances as a way of self-insurance?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(1), pages 108-130.
    3. Ur Rehman, Obeid, 2023. "Spousal communication and information sharing: Evidence from migrants and their spouses," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    4. Ambler, Kate, 2015. "Don't tell on me: Experimental evidence of asymmetric information in transnational households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 52-69.
    5. Batista, Catia & Silverman, Dan & Yang, Dean, 2015. "Directed giving: Evidence from an inter-household transfer experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 2-21.
    6. Carolina Alban Conto, 2021. "Does Distance-Driven Information Asymmetry Affect Private Income Transfers? Theory and Evidence From Colombia," Working Papers hal-03192955, HAL.
    7. Genicot, Garance, 2016. "Two-sided altruism and signaling," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 92-97.
    8. Hagen-Zanker, Jessica, 2010. "Modest expectations: Causes and effects of migration on migrant households in source countries," MPRA Paper 29507, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Richard P.C. Brown & Eliana V. Jimenez, 2008. "Remittances and Subjective Welfare in a Mixed-Motives Model: Evidence from Fiji," Discussion Papers Series 370, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    10. Catia Batista & Gaia Narciso, 2018. "Migrant Remittances and Information Flows: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(1), pages 203-219.
    11. Jean-Marie Baland & Roberta Ziparo, 2017. "Intra-household bargaining in poor countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Giuseppe Arcangelis & Majlinda Joxhe, 2021. "Intra-household allocation with shared expenditure choices: experimental evidence from Filipino migrants," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1245-1274, December.
    13. Jean-Marie Baland & Roberta Ziparo, 2017. "Intra-household bargaining in poor countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Marlon Seror, 2015. "Modeling and Measuring Information Asymmetry in the Context of Senegalese Migrants' Remittances," Working Papers DT/2015/23, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    15. Giuseppe Arcangelis & Majlinda Joxhe, 0. "Intra-household allocation with shared expenditure choices: experimental evidence from Filipino migrants," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-30.
    16. Masahiro Shoji & Keitaro Aoyagi & Ryuji Kasahara & Yasuyuki Sawada, 2020. "Motives behind community participation: Evidence from natural and artefactual field experiments in Sri Lanka," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 577-600, December.
    17. Shoji, Masahiro & Aoyagi, Keitaro & Kasahara, Ryuji & Sawada, Yasuyuki, 2010. "Motives behind Community Participation," Working Papers 16, JICA Research Institute.
    18. Olivier Bargain & Jordan Loper & Roberta Ziparo, 2024. "Women's Empowerment and Husband's Migration: Evidence from Indonesia," CERDI Working papers hal-04409953, HAL.
    19. Thomas Joseph & Yaw Nyarko & Shing-Yi Wang, 2018. "Asymmetric Information and Remittances: Evidence from Matched Administrative Data," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 58-100, April.
    20. Ingela Alger & Laura Juarez & Miriam Juarez-Torres & Josepa Miquel-Florensa, 2020. "Do Informal Transfers Induce Lower Efforts? Evidence from Lab-in-the-Field Experiments in Rural Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(1), pages 107-171.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:54:y:2019:i:1:p:225-254. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.