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Do spouses realise cooperative gains? Experimental evidence from rural Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Vegard Iversen

    (University of Manchester)

  • Cecile Jackson

    (University of East Anglia)

  • Bereket Kebede

    (University of East Anglia)

  • Alistair Munro

    (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan)

  • Arjan Verschoor

    (University of East Anglia)

Abstract

Intra-household efficiency is tested by using experimental data from variants of a public good game from 240 couples in rural Uganda. Spouses frequently do not maximise surplus from cooperation and realise a greater surplus when women are in charge of allocating the common pool. Women contribute less than men. These results cast doubts on many models of household decision making including unitary and collective models and on Sen's (1990) conjecture of greater female identification with household interests. We also find strong evidence for opportunism, where spouses don't contribute to the common pool even when they are in control of its allocation. Experimental results are correlated with some socio-economic conditions in a manner suggesting that assortative matching improves household efficiency. The development of non-cooperative intra-household models that allow in their empirical implementation for sensitivity to the context-specificity of gender relations seems to be a promising direction for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Vegard Iversen & Cecile Jackson & Bereket Kebede & Alistair Munro & Arjan Verschoor, 2010. "Do spouses realise cooperative gains? Experimental evidence from rural Uganda," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) 10-02, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    • Handle: RePEc:uea:wcbess:10-02
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    household behaviour; cooperation; gender; experiments; Africa; Uganda;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C71 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Cooperative Games
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General

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