Abstract
Using a carefully designed series of public goods games, we compare, across monogamous and polygynous households, the willingness of husbands and wives to cooperate to maximize household gains. Compared to monogamous husbands and wives, polygynous husbands and wives are less cooperative, one with another, and co-wives are least cooperative, one with another. The husbands' and wives' behavior in a corresponding series of inter-household games indicates that these differences cannot be attributed to selection of less cooperative people into polygyny. Finally, behavior in polygynous households is more reciprocal and less apparently altruistic.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 266-283 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | American Economic Journal: Applied Economics |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2019 |
Funding
* Barr: School of Economics, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK (email: [email protected]); Dekker: African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, the Netherlands (email: [email protected]); Janssens: School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands (email: w.janssens@ vu.nl); Kebede: School of International Development and Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) at the University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK (email: [email protected]); Kramer: Markets, Trade and Institutions Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, 1201 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 (email: [email protected]). Benjamin Olken was coeditor for this article. This research project received financial support from the Amsterdam Institute for International Development (AIID), the Economic and Social Research Council via the Network for Integrated Behavioural Sciences (award no. ES/K002201/1), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO (grant no. 451-10-002), the African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, the Tinbergen Institute, and the University of East Anglia. We are grateful to the AIID and PharmAccess Foundation for sharing their survey data and supporting the research. We very much appreciate the comments from Simon Gächter, John Gathergood, Markus Goldstein, and three anonymous referees. We are very thankful for the excellent assistance in the field by Tanimola Akande, Ameen Hafsat, Marijn van der List, and the interviewer team.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| AIID | |
| African Studies Centre | |
| Amsterdam Institute for International Development | |
| Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO | 451-10-002 |
| Network for Integrated Behavioural Sciences | |
| Tinbergen Institute | |
| university of leiden | |
| Economic and Social Research Council | ES/K002201/1 |
| University of East Anglia |
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Replication data for: Cooperation in Polygynous Households
Kramer, B. (Contributor), Janssens, W. (Contributor), Kebede, B. (Contributor), Barr, A. (Contributor) & Dekker, M. (Contributor), ICPSR, 1 Jan 2019
DOI: 10.3886/e113730, https://doi.org/10.3886%2Fe113730
Dataset / Software: Dataset
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Replication data for: Cooperation in Polygynous Households
Barr, A. (Contributor), Janssens, W. (Contributor), Kebede, B. (Contributor), Dekker, M. (Contributor) & Kramer, B. (Contributor), ICPSR, 1 Jan 2019
DOI: 10.3886/e113730v1, https://doi.org/10.3886%2Fe113730v1
Dataset / Software: Dataset
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Replication data for: Cooperation in Polygynous Households
Janssens, W. (Creator), Barr, A. (Contributor), Dekker, M. (Contributor), Kebede, B. (Contributor) & Kramer, B. N. (Contributor), openICPSR, 2 Apr 2019
DOI: DOI: 10.1257/app.20170438, https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/113730/version/V1/view
Dataset / Software: Dataset