Working Paper: NBER ID: w18964
Authors: Grant Miller; A. Mushfiq Mobarak
Abstract: This paper examines whether an intra-household externality prevents adoption of a technology with substantial implications for population health and the environment: improved cookstoves. Motivated by a model of intra-household decision-making, the experiment markets stoves to husbands or wives in turn at randomly varying prices. We find that women - who bear disproportionate cooking costs - have stronger preference for healthier stoves, but lack the authority to make purchases. Our findings suggest that if women cannot make independent choices about household resource use, public policy may not be able to exploit gender differences in preferences to promote technology adoption absent broader social change.
Keywords: Gender differences; Cookstoves; Intrahousehold externalities; Technology adoption
JEL Codes: D13; I12; I15; O12; O33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| gender of decision-maker (J16) | adoption of improved cookstoves (Q16) |
| price of stoves (P22) | adoption of improved cookstoves (Q16) |
| lack of decision-making authority among women (J16) | lower adoption rates of preferred technologies (O33) |
| financial constraints and authority issues (H60) | women's likelihood of adopting stoves (J12) |
| decision-making authority of women (D70) | likelihood of ordering healthier stoves (L68) |