{"title":"Who decides in the household when risk preferences conflict?","authors":"Ben D'Exelle, Charlotte Ringdal","doi":"10.1007/s11150-025-09771-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Women's low involvement in household decisions is an important cause of the persistence of gender inequality in developing countries, as it constrains women's access to resources and opportunities. Despite its importance, little is known about the behavioral mechanisms behind women's low involvement. Guided by a simple theoretical model, we hypothesize that women may refrain from participating in household decisions to avoid spousal conflict, the likelihood of which increases with spousal differences in risk preferences. Using survey data from both spouses of 675 couples in rural Tanzania, we find that spousal differences in risk preferences are associated with a lower likelihood that spouses make decisions jointly and a higher likelihood that decisions are made by the husband alone. These relations are stronger in couples where women are more conflict-averse.</p>","PeriodicalId":47111,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economics of the Household","volume":"24 2","pages":"499-540"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13226449/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Review of Economics of the Household","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-025-09771-8","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/4/10 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Women's low involvement in household decisions is an important cause of the persistence of gender inequality in developing countries, as it constrains women's access to resources and opportunities. Despite its importance, little is known about the behavioral mechanisms behind women's low involvement. Guided by a simple theoretical model, we hypothesize that women may refrain from participating in household decisions to avoid spousal conflict, the likelihood of which increases with spousal differences in risk preferences. Using survey data from both spouses of 675 couples in rural Tanzania, we find that spousal differences in risk preferences are associated with a lower likelihood that spouses make decisions jointly and a higher likelihood that decisions are made by the husband alone. These relations are stronger in couples where women are more conflict-averse.
期刊介绍：
The Review of Economics of the Household publishes high-quality empirical and theoretical research on the economic behavior and decision-making processes of single and multi-person households. The Review is not wedded to any particular models or methods. It welcomes both macro-economic and micro-level applications. Household decisions analyzed in this journal include · household production of human capital, health, nutrition/food, childcare, and eldercare, · well-being of persons living in households, issues of gender and power, · fertility and risky behaviors, · consumption, savings and wealth accumulation, · labor force participation and time use,· household formation (including marriage, cohabitation and fertility) and dissolution,· migration, intergenerational transfers,· experiments involving households,· religiosity and civility.The journal is particularly interested in policy-relevant economic analyses and equally interested in applications to countries at various levels of economic development. The Perspectives section covers articles on the history of economic thought and review articles. Officially cited as: Rev Econ Household
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