Do children make women more patient? Experimental evidence from Indian villages

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies gender heterogeneity in preferences. We used experimental methods to elicit the subjective discount rate and attitude toward risk in Indian villages. Results show that women made more patient choices than men and that their discount rate is related to number of children. No gender difference is found for individuals without children. Women's discount rate declines up to four children, whereas men's does not decline. Our findings suggest that conflictual interactions within a household are more likely when a couple has young children, and hence, spousal heterogeneity in patience is at its greatest.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IES Working Paper ; No. 10/2009

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Field Experiments ; Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
• Subject: subjective discount rate ; gender ; experiment ; India ; Geschlecht ; Risikopräferenz ; Zeitpräferenz ; Landbevölkerung ; Test ; Karnataka

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bauer, Michal ; Chytilová, Julie
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Charles University in Prague, Institute of Economic Studies (IES)
• (where): Prague
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/83337
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET