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Daily Needs, Income Targets and Labor Supply: Evidence from Kenya

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  • Pascaline Dupas
  • Jonathan Robinson

Abstract

Many studies suggest that daily income earners behave as if they have daily income targets. Less work has examined the determinants of the targets themselves. Using data on labor supply, shocks, and self-reported cash needs from 257 bicycle taxi drivers in Western Kenya, we provide evidence that many individuals treat their daily cash need as the day's target. We conjecture that in a physically demanding job, workers may have an incentive to quit early and so set a personal rule of "earning enough for the day's need" as an internal commitment device to provide effort. This heuristic is more common among less educated workers and has substantial welfare costs: greater variance in hours worked is associated with worse health, and we estimate that workers would earn 5% more by working a set number of hours each day (more if their wage elasticity were positive).

Suggested Citation

  • Pascaline Dupas & Jonathan Robinson, 2013. "Daily Needs, Income Targets and Labor Supply: Evidence from Kenya," NBER Working Papers 19264, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19264
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Berber Kramer, 2016. "When expectations become aspirations: reference-dependent preferences and liquidity constraints," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 61(4), pages 685-721, April.
    3. Gomez-Gonzalez, Jose E. & Castro-Pantoja, John D. & Díaz-Barreto, Laura C. & Mora-Arbeláez, Tatiana A. & Rodriguez-Novoa, Daniela, 2021. "Bancarization and violent attacks from guerrilla and other illegal groups in Colombia," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Supreet Kaur & Michael Kremer & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2015. "Self-Control at Work," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(6), pages 1227-1277.
    5. Masekesa, Faith & Munro, Alistair, 2020. "Intra-household inequality, fairness and productivity. Evidence from a real effort experiment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    6. Immanuel Lampe & Daniel Würtenberger, 2019. "Loss Aversion And The Demand For Index Insurance," Working Papers on Finance 1907, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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