Bridging the gender divide: an experimental analysis of group formation in African villages

Abigail Barr, Marleen Dekker and Marcel Fafchamps

No 87, ASC Working Papers from African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL), Leiden, The Netherlands

Abstract: Assortative matching occurs in many social contexts. We experimentally investigate gender assorting in sub-Saharan villages. In the experiment, co-villagers could form groups to share winnings in a gamble choice game. The extent to which grouping arrangements were or could be enforced and, hence, the distribution of interaction costs were exogenously varied. Thus, we can distinguish between the effects of homophily and interaction costs on the extent of observed gender assorting. We find that interaction costs matter - there is less gender assorting when grouping depends on trust. In part, this is due to trust based on co-memberships in gender-mixed religions.

Keywords: gender; group formation; Zimbabwe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D19 J16 O18 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as ASC Working Paper 87, 2009

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http://hdl.handle.net/1887/14565 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Bridging the Gender Divide: An Experimental Analysis of Group Formation in African Villages (2012)
Working Paper: Bridging the gender divide: An experimental analysis of group formation in African villages (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:asc:wpaper:87

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