To invest or not to invest in sanitation: The role of intra-household gender differences in perceptions and bargaining power

Britta Augsburg, Bansi Malde, Harriet Olorenshaw and Zaki Wahhaj

Journal of Development Economics, 2023, vol. 162, issue C

Abstract: We exploit novel data collected within a randomized controlled trial of a sanitation microcredit intervention to study how intra-household gender differences in perceptions of costs and benefits of sanitation impact investment decisions. We show that – as long as the wife is involved in household decision-making – the intra-household differences in perceptions we document influence borrowing and investments: uptake of the sanitation loan is higher among households where the wife has higher benefit perception, whereas successful conversion to a toilet depends on differences in monetary cost perceptions. The estimated effects are consistent with the predictions of a model of intra-household decision-making.

Keywords: Sanitation; Perceptions; Intra-household bargaining; Microfinance; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 I12 J16 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387823000299
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: To invest or not to invest in sanitation: the role of intra-household gender differences in perceptions and bargaining power (2023)
Working Paper: To invest or not to invest in sanitation: the role of intra-household gender differences in perceptions and bargaining power (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:162:y:2023:i:c:s0304387823000299

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103074

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig

More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().