Intrahousehold Bargaining and the Demand for Consumer Durables in Brazil

Ana Fava and Mary Arends-Kuenning

No 7281, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In Brazil, wives do most of the household work. About sixty percent of them also work outside the household, working a total of about 10 hours more per week than men. Because of this unequal distribution of household work, husbands and wives might have different priorities regarding the purchase of durable goods. Although both husbands and wives enjoy entertainment durable goods, wives might have a relative preference for household-production durable goods such as washing machines over entertainment durable goods such as televisions. Using a Brazilian household consumption survey, we examine whether decisions about ownership of entertainment and production durable goods are the outcomes of a bargaining process between husbands and wives. We use several variables to measure bargaining power, including the ratio of women to men in a state. The results indicate that decisions about durable goods ownership are the outcomes of bargaining processes between husbands and wives with wives having a relative preference for household-production durable goods over entertainment durable goods compared to their husbands. Bargaining might explain why ownership of household production durable goods is relatively low in Brazil, despite their potential to save women's time.

Keywords: consumer durables; Brazil; household production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2013-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa and nep-dem
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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