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: University of Gothenburg

No 4139, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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: 34 pages
Date: 2009-04
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Published - revised version published as 'The Influence of Spouses on Household Decision Making Under Risk: An Experiment in Rural China' in: Experimental Economics, 2013, 16(3), 383-403

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Related works:
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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