TY  - JOUR
AU  - Friedberg,Leora
AU  - Webb,Anthony
TI  - Determinants and Consequences of Bargaining Power in Households
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12367
PY  - 2006
Y2  - July 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12367
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12367.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Leora Friedberg
Department of Economics
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400182
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4182
Tel: 434/924-3225
Fax: 434/982-2904
E-Mail: lfriedbe@nber.org

Anthony Webb
Center for Retirement Research
Boston College
258 Hammond Street
Chestnut Hill
MA
02467
Tel: 6466627254
E-Mail: Webbaa@bc.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2006-07-24
AB  - A growing literature offers indirect evidence that the distribution of bargaining power within a household influences decisions made by the household. The indirect evidence links household outcomes to variables that are assumed to influence the distribution of power within the household. In this paper, we have data on whether a husband or wife in the Health and Retirement Study %u201Chas the final say%u201D when making major decisions in a household. We use this variable to analyze determinants and some consequences of bargaining power. Our analysis overcomes endogeneity problems arising in many earlier studies and constitutes a missing link confirming the importance of household bargaining models.
	We find that decision-making power depends on plausible individual variables and also influences important household outcomes, with the second set of results much stronger than the first set. Current and lifetime earnings have significant but moderate effects on decision-making power. On the other hand, decision-making power has important effects on financial decisions like stock market investment and total wealth accumulation and may help explain, for example, the relatively high poverty rate among widows.
ER  -