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Do Opposites Detract? Intrahousehold Preference Heterogeneity and Inefficient Strategic Savings

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Do Opposites Detract? Intrahousehold Preference Heterogeneity and Inefficient Strategic Savings
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QQUIZC
 
Creator Schaner, Simone
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description This paper uses a field experiment to test whether intrahousehold heterogeneity in discount factors leads to inefficient strategic savings behavior. I gave married couples in rural Kenya the opportunity to open both joint and individual bank accounts at randomly assigned interest rates. I also directly elicited discount factors for all individuals in the experiment. Couples who are well matched on discount factors are less likely to use costly individual accounts and respond robustly to relative rates of return between accounts, while their poorly matched peers do not. Consequently, poorly matched couples forgo significantly more interest earnings on their savings.
 
Subject Social Sciences
Household production
Intrahousehold allocation
Saving
Personal finance
Marriage
Economic development
Domestic abuse
 
Language English
Swahili
 
Contributor Research Support, Innovations for Poverty Action
 
Type Survey data
Administrative data