Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS & Economics: Spousal Control and Savings Decisions

尽管大多数储蓄决定都是在家庭层面上做出的，但人们对拥有不同时间偏好的配偶如何做出分配资金的决定却知之甚少。很少有关于家庭内部财务决策的实证研究，通常是因为很难通过调查问题从夫妻双方那里得到关于家庭内部发生的事情的诚实回答。该项目采用在菲律宾棉兰老岛进行的实验室实验和住户调查；该研究在随机变化的隐私、配偶在场和与配偶谈判条件下，引出了配偶双方的时间偏好，以及对家庭财务决策的征用和信任的恐惧。这项研究是第一次将配偶带入实验室做出财务决策，并将他们的实验室结果与家庭储蓄和资产等变量联系起来。它提供了实验方法的一种新应用，以增进对家庭内部决策的了解，并对减少冲突和克服在家庭一级调动储蓄的障碍具有影响。更好地了解家庭内部动态对于确保旨在改善生计的方案产生更可持续和平衡的影响至关重要。

Despite the fact that the majority of savings decisions are made at the household level, very little is understood about how spouses with different time preferences make decisions about allocating money. There is little empirical work on intra-household financial decision-making, often because it is hard to elicit honest responses from both spouses about what happens within the household through survey questions. This project uses both laboratory experiments and household surveys carried out in Mindanao, the Philippines; the research elicits time preference of both spouses, as well as fear of expropriation and trust with financial decisions in the household, under randomly varied conditions of privacy, spousal presence, and negotiation with one's spouse. This study is among the first to bring spouses into the lab to make financial decisions and to correlate their laboratory outcomes with household-level variables about savings and assets. It provides a new application of experimental methodology to advance understanding of intra-household decision making, and has implications for decreasing conflict and overcoming obstacles to mobilize savings at the household level. Gaining a better understanding of intra-household dynamics is critical to ensuring that programs aimed at improving livelihood have a more sustainable and balanced impact.