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To understand the household decision-making process regarding food expenditures for children in poor households in Nairobi, we conduct an experiment with 424 married couples. In the experiment, the spouses (individually and jointly) allocated money between themselves and nutritious meals for one of their children. First, we find strong empirical support for individual rationality and cooperative behavior. Second, our results suggest that women do not have stronger preferences for children’s meals than men. Third, the spouses’ respective bargaining positions derived from consumption patterns strongly correlate with more traditional indicators. Finally, we document significant heterogeneity both between individuals and intra-household decision processes.
Authors
Columbia University
Research Associate Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Laurens is a Research Associate of the IFS and a Professor in the Department of Economics, KU Leuven.
Research Associate Université libre de Bruxelles
Bram is a Research Associate of the IFS, a Professor of Economics at ULB and a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at KU Leuven.
Research Associate University of Leuven
Frederic is a Research Associate of the IFS, a Professor of Economics at the University of Leuven and a Research Fellow at the CEPR.
Charlotte Ringdal
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2021.3221
- Publisher
- Institute for Fiscal Studies
Suggested citation
Cherchye, L et al. (2021). Feed the children. London: Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/feed-children (accessed: 10 May 2024).
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