The Good Wife? Reputation Dynamics and Financial Decision-Making inside the Household

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Buchmann, Nina; Dupas, Pascaline; Ziparo, Roberta
• 署名单位: Yale University; Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Aix-Marseille Universite
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20230393
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 525-570
• 关键词: information; GENDER; allocation; EFFICIENCY; ECONOMICS; games

摘要

We study reputation dynamics within the household in a setting where women regularly receive transfers from their husbands for household purchases. We propose a signaling model in which wives try to maintain a good reputation in the eyes of their husbands to receive high transfers. This leads them to (i) avoid risky purchases (goods with unknown returns) and (ii) knowingly overuse low-return goods to hide bad purchase decisions-we call this the intrahousehold sunk cost effect. We present supportive evidence for the model from a series of experiments with married couples in rural Malawi.