TY  - JOUR
AU  - Duflo,Esther
AU  - Udry,Christopher
TI  - Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Cote d'Ivoire: Social Norms, Separate Accounts and Consumption Choices
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10498
PY  - 2004
Y2  - May 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10498
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10498.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Esther Duflo
Department of Economics
MIT, E52-252G
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: 617/258-7013
Fax: 617/253-6915
E-Mail: eduflo@mit.edu

Christopher R. Udry
Economic Growth Center
Yale University
Box 208269
New Haven, CT 06520
Tel: 203/432-3637
Fax: 203/432-3898
E-Mail: udry@yale.edu
AB  - We study resource allocation within households in C“te d'Ivoire. In C“te d'Ivoire, as in much of Africa, husbands and wives farm separate plots, and there is some specialization by gender in the crops that are grown. These different crops are differentially sensitive to particular kinds of rainfall shocks. We find that conditional on overall levels of expenditure, the composition of household expenditure is sensitive to the gender of the recipient of a rainfall shock. For example, rainfall shocks associated with high yields of women's crops shift expenditure towards food. Strong social norms constrain the use of profits from yam cultivation, which is carried out almost exclusively by men. In line with these norms, we find that rainfall-induced fluctuations in income from yams are transmitted to expenditures on education and food, not to expenditures on private goods (like alcohol and tobacco). We reject the hypothesis of complete insurance within households, even with respect to publicly observable weather shocks. Different sources of income are allocated to different uses depending upon both the identity of the income earner and upon the origin of the income.
ER  -