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Generosity and sharing among villagers: Do women give more?

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  • Bezu, Sosina

    (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)

  • Holden , Stein

    (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)

Abstract

This paper explores generosity among anonymous villagers and sharing within families using a dictator game field experiment that was carried out in rural villages in Ethiopia. We find that generosity among anonymous villagers is very low compared with the findings in the dictator game literature. On average, the dictators in our sample allocate only 6% of their endowments to anonymous persons in the village, and three-fourths of the dictators keep all of their endowments to themselves when paired with anonymous persons. However, we found very high levels of sharing between husband and wife. In terms of gender differences, we find that women are not more generous towards anonymous persons, nor are they more likely to share within their families. In fact, there is some evidence, albeit weak, showing that women allocate less to anonymous persons than do men. Additionally, there is strong evidence that women are less likely to share their resources with their spouse than are men.

Suggested Citation

  • Bezu, Sosina & Holden , Stein, 2015. "Generosity and sharing among villagers: Do women give more?," Working Paper Series 04-2015, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:nlsseb:2015_004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Abigail Barr & Marleen Dekker & Wendy Janssens & Bereket Kebede & Berber Kramer, 2019. "Cooperation in Polygynous Households," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 266-283, April.
    3. Bjorvatn, Kjetil & Getahun, Tigabu Degu & Halvorsen, Sandra Kristine, 2020. "Conflict or cooperation? Experimental evidence on intra-household allocations in Ethiopia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Peter Dolton & Richard S.J. Tol, 2019. "Correlates of Social Value Orientation: Evidence from a Large Sample of the UK Population," Working Paper Series 0119, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    5. Matthew K. Gnagey & Therese C. Grijalva & Rong Rong, 2018. "Spousal Dictator Game: Household Decisions and Other-Regarding Preferences," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-11, September.
    6. Ruth Cadaoas Tacneng & Klarizze Anne Martin Puzon, 2021. "Gender priming in solidarity games: The Philippine context," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-24, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dictator game; generosity; sharing; field experiment; Ethiopia; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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