Friends in the village:do they matter for women’s involvement in household decisions?
利用坦桑尼亚农村700对夫妻数据，研究发现妻子朋友越多，反而越少与丈夫共同决策，更多由丈夫单独决策，且朋友类型（性别、是否夫妻共享）有调节作用。
Abstract It is often assumed that social connections are good for female empowerment in developing countries. However, growing evidence suggests that empowered women may face backlash from their spouse. In this paper, we analyze how the number of friends that wives have in their village affects the wives’ involvement in household decisions about their own health and their children’s health. To do so, we use data from 700 couples in 30 villages in rural Tanzania. We estimate the effect of the number of friends on the wife’s involvement in household decisions using a multinomial logit regression combined with a control function that deals with potential endogeneity bias. We find that wives with more friends are less likely to make decisions jointly with their husband, and are more likely to report that their husband makes decisions without their involvement. We further explore whether the effects depend on the “type” of friends, as defined by their gender and whether they are shared with the husband.