Household Decision Making in Rural China: Using Experiments to Estimate the Influences of Spouses

Fredrik Carlsson, Haoran He, 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 465, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: Many economic decisions are made jointly within households. This raises the question about spouses’ relative influence on joint decisions and the determinants of relative influence. Using a controlled experiment (on inter-temporal choice), we let each spouse first make individual decisions and then make joint decisions with the other spouse. We use a random parameter probit model to measure the relative influence of spouses on joint decisions. In general, husbands have a stronger influence than wives. However, in richer households and when the wife is older than the husband, we find a significantly stronger influence of the wife on joint decisions.

Keywords: household decision making; spouses; relative influence; random parameter model; field experiment; time preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 C93 D10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2010-08-17
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Published as Carlsson, Fredrik, Haoran He, Peter Martinsson, Ping Qin and Matthias Sutter, 'Household Decision Making in Rural China: Using Experiments to Estimate the Influences of Spouses' in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2012, pages 525-536.

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Journal Article: Household decision making in rural China: Using experiments to estimate the influences of spouses (2012)
Working Paper: Household Decision Making in Rural China: Using Experiments to Estimate the Influences of Spouses (2010)
Working Paper: Household Decision Making in Rural China: Using Experiments to Estimate the Influences of Spouses (2010)
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