Do financial incentives aimed at decreasing interhousehold inequality increase intrahousehold inequality?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chuan, Amanda; List, John; Samek, Anya
• 署名单位: Michigan State University; University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104382
• 发表日期: 2021
• 关键词: Family economics; Intrahousehold allocation; Early childhood education

摘要

Research has shown that giving disadvantaged families financial incentives to invest in their children could decrease socioeconomic inequality by enhancing human capital formation. Yet, within the household how are such gains achieved? We use a field experiment to investigate how parents allocate time when they receive financial incentives. We find that incentives increase investment in the target child. But, parents achieve these gains by substituting away from time spent with the child's sibling(s). An unintended consequence is that intrahousehold inequality increases and aggregate gains from the program are overstated when focusing only on target children. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.