Autonomy or efficiency: An experiment on household decisions in two regions of India

Alistair Munro, Bereket Kebede, Marcela Tarazona-Gomez and Arjan Verschoor
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Marcela Tarazona-Gomez: School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia
Arjan Verschoor: School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia

No 11-02, Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) from School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

Abstract: Dyson and Moore (1983) posit that women in South India enjoy relatively more agency than in the North. Their conclusions have become part of the standard picture of Indian rural society. In this paper, we examine using experimental data the implications of this regional contrast in female autonomy for the efficiency of family decision-making. We take a sample of 1200 couples from two areas in the north of India (Uttar Pradesh) and one area in the south (Tamil Nadu) that are often taken to exemplify differences in the autonomy of women and the nature of marital relationships. Generally, we find large-scale and robust evidence of inefficiency and the hiding of assets when this is possible. Men invest more and are more generous to their partners. Women are more willing to invest in a common pool when their income is earned through working and when assets are publicly observable. Regarding the focus of our paper, we find continuing significant differences between North and South and we find relatively little evidence that urban living is associated with changes in the nature of marital behaviour. There are some differences between response to treatment but the key and striking difference between the North and the South is that in both rural and urban sites in the former region household efficiency is considerably greater than in the latter, which does on the face of it suggest a tradeoff between autonomy and efficiency.

Keywords: Economic experiments; married couples; female autonomy; efficiency; intra-household allocation; North and South India; Dyson and Moore (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-02-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Working Paper: Autonomy or Efficiency. An experiment on household decisions in two regions of India (2011)
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