Working Paper: NBER ID: w30513
Authors: Dietmar Fehr; Johanna Möllerstrom; Ricardo Pérez-Truglia
Abstract: We study how economic information diffuses within the household, leveraging an information-provision experiment with a representative sample of households from Germany. A random sample of household members received information about their household’s position in the income distribution. When provided with information directly, there are no gender differences in how individuals update their beliefs. However, we observe significant gender disparities in the diffusion of information within the household. Specifically, when only the husband receives the information, it influences the wife’s beliefs; however, when only the wife receives the information, it does not affect the husband’s beliefs.
Keywords: information diffusion; household economics; gender differences
JEL Codes: D1; D83
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Husbands receiving information about income rank (D31) | Wives' beliefs about household's income (D19) |
| Wives receiving information about income rank (D31) | Husbands' beliefs about household's income (D19) |
| Husbands receiving information about income rank (D31) | Wives' beliefs about household's income (strong passthrough effect) (D13) |
| Difference in indirect learning rates between genders (J79) | Wives' passthrough rate and Husbands' passthrough rate (J12) |