Household decision making and the influence of spouses’ income, education, and communist party membership: A field experiment in rural China

Fredrik Carlsson, Peter Martinsson, Ping Qin () and Matthias Sutter
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Ping Qin: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG

No 356, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study household decision making in a high-stakes experiment with a random sample of households in rural China. Spouses have to choose between risky lotteries, first separately and then jointly. We find that spouses’ individual risk preferences are more similar the richer the household and the higher the wife’s relative income contribution. A couple’s joint decision is typically determined by the husband, but women who contribute relatively more to the household income, women in high-income households, women with more education than their husbands, and women with communist party membership have a stronger influence on the joint decision.

Keywords: Household decision making; Risk; Field experiment; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 C93 D10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2009-04-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cna, nep-dev, nep-exp, nep-lab, nep-ltv, nep-tra and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Published as Carlsson, Fredrik, Peter Martinsson, Ping Qin and Matthias Sutter, 'Household decision making and the influence of spouses’ income, education, and communist party membership: A field experiment in rural China' in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2012, pages 525-536.

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Working Paper: Household decision making and the influence of spouses' income, education, and communist party membership: A field experiment in rural China (2009)
Working Paper: Household Decision Making and the Influence of Spouses' Income, Education, and Communist Party Membership: A Field Experiment in Rural China (2009)
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