Hiding or Pleasing: Spousal Disagreement Among Ugandan Maize Farmers
研究乌干达玉米种植家庭中夫妻对决策、资产和劳动的回答差异，通过田野实验检验信息不对称和性别规范是否是分歧的主要原因。
To gain a better understanding of intrahousehold bargaining processes, surveys increasingly collect data from co-heads individually, especially on decision-making, asset ownership and labour contributions. However, answers provided by co-heads to the same set of questions often differ substantially. Recent research suggests that while some of this disagreement is due to random measurement error and cognitive bias, part also reflects non-overlapping information sets. We document differences in answers between male and female co-heads in monogamous smallholder maize-farming households in Uganda. We first confirm that not all disagreement can be explained by measurement error or bias. Using a field experiment, we then test if disagreement is due to information asymmetry between male and female co-heads. We also test an alternative explanation where discord is attributed to co-heads’ tendency to respond in line with prevailing gender norms and social customs. While the interventions did seem to reduce discord in survey response about decision-making, we do not find that information asymmetry nor reporting in line with gender norms and customs are the primary drivers of disagreement.