Catherine Guirkinger

CDR - Delegation in the household

This project aims at better understanding how households make choices.

The project has two main parts.

First, we will develop a theoretical model of the allocation of authority and of the subsequent choices made by households. In this framework the decision making process followed by the household is endogenously determined by the people involved in the decision and a delegation equilibrium may emerge. The decision process depends on various parameters such as time preferences, the degree of congruence of partners over a project or the opportunity cost of information search.

Second, we will test the predictions generated by the model in an original lab-in-the-field experiment that we will conduct in Colombia. The idea is to select couples and to carry out a baseline survey and a series of incentivized individuals and couple games.