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Parental altruism: evidence from field experiments in Tanzania

Parental altruism: evidence from field experiments in Tanzania. Janine Huisman Idda Moscha Jeroen Smits Jana Vyrastekova Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Motivation.

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Parental altruism: evidence from field experiments in Tanzania

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  1. Parental altruism:evidence from field experiments in Tanzania Janine Huisman Idda Moscha Jeroen Smits Jana Vyrastekova Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

  2. Motivation The occurence and wide availability of various family planning methods (contraceptives) has shifted the fertility decisions into a domain of choice, with resulting demographic changes in the West. Nevertheless, the demographic transition (and investing into quality rather than only quantity of offspring) is still lacking in many third-world countries (sub-saharian Africa, Asia...). PUZZLE

  3. Motivation PUZZLE

  4. Motivation: altruism and demographic puzzle Hamilton's rule:"The social behavior of species evolves in such a way that in each distinct behavior-evoking situation the individual will seem to value his neighbor's fitness against his own according to the coefficients of relationship approriate to that situation (1964)." Coefficient between parent and child is 1/2; but parenthood is certain only for the mother; suggesting gender differences in behavior wrt. offspring; moreover, father can remarry if a mother dies in birth (birth spacing and birth incidence poses serious health hazard for women) When monogamous parents share the same living territory, communicate, can monitor each other - and develop "trust", fraternity is (less un)certain, the interests of mother and father more aligned, and the level of investments by altruistically linked parents is higher than the one of egoistic parents (Bergstrom, T., AER 2007; Bergstrom, T. 1994); implying (evolutionary) efficiency boost for the altruism; implying demand for FP and a decrease in fertility (?)

  5. Question Demographic transition will be accompanied by altruism of parents toward children parental investments into child life quality (education, health) self-control over fertility (FP approval and FP use) ultimately, lower number of offspring Objective: link altruism and FP Questions: causality? method!

  6. Policy implications of parental altruism • Parental altruism Up=Up(xp, xc) • direct cash transfers to any family member are at least as welfare increasing as targeted consumption intervention (health, fertility and education policies in developing countries) • BUT: • sub-saharian FP programs ineffective in decreasing fertility rate (World Bank 2007) • parental preferences towards their offspring can be expected to differ from each other (Trivers 1972; Eswaran and Kotwal 2004) “… even when ostensibly cooperating in a joint task, male and female interests are rarely identical.” (Trivers, 1972, p.174)

  7. Gender differences in (parental) altruism In the lab (altruism towards a stranger) • Some altruists among human decision-makers (Andreoni and miller 2002, GARP): 75% participants show systematically some degree of altruism • gender diff. ambiguous (Eckel and Grossman, 1998; Andreoni and Vesterlund 1998): males are more sensitive the price of giving than females In the field (parental altruism) • Increase in maternal income only results in... • increase of survival rate of infants (Brazil; Thomas 1990) • increase of food, and lower alcohol and tobacco consumption(Cote d’Ivory; Hoddinott and Haddad, 1995) • Bhalotra (2004): altruism cannot be rejected for mothers, only for fathers • Assets in the hands of women increase educational budgets in families (Quisumbing and Maluccio, 2006)

  8. Sister ... carrying a sibling while parents work Do gender roles / gender differences with respect to preferences/ society position / responsibility arise / get imprinted at an early age already?

  9. Research strategy • Incentivized field experiments • Ethics: guarantee anonymity • Design: prevent appropriation of child income by parent(s); and re-sale • Game: • a modified dictator game with a parent choosing from a set of allocations containing anallocation benefiting ONLY a child (simple slippers suitable for walks to school, preventing feet from scratches, inflammations... thus improving health/welfare of the child); or allocation inferior in resale value (cash) but allowing parent consumption; and allocation approximately equal to resale value but representing luxury product (sugar) • slippers-value cca 1500TZS • cash-varies between 0-500-800 on various sessions • sugar-value cca 1500 TZS

  10. Alternatives

  11. Regions in Tanzania • regional borders = ethnical identity • two neighboring regions (Sukuma and Haya tribes) • agriculture: Kagera (coffee, banana’s) vs. Mwanza (cattle; maize, cassava) • values/norms/ community attitudes? • Kagera participants feel more respected in the community than Mwanza participants (MWU, p=0.000)

  12. Making decisions in the field

  13. Eight locations: urban or rural

  14. Payment/choice

  15. Participants • N=361 (+1 lost questionniare) • 4 wards in Mwanza + 4 wards in Kagera • two sessions per location • minimal time interval to avoid transmission of ideas • session 1= experiment 1 (unrelated pairs, 50% male, 50% female) • session 2= experiment 2 (married couples, 50% male, 50% female); assuring that participants knew that the wives will leave BEFORE the husbands (appropriability!)

  16. Reading instructions

  17. Questionnaires

  18. Parental altruism: observations • A non-negligible fraction of individulas makes the altruistic choice • slipper choices are independent of whether a luxury consumption good (sugar) is available; • increasing the available cash does not decrease in a linear way the choice of slippers • Choosing slippers as a non-resale choice • less than 20% vs. more than 50% of individuals choose slippers when without childern vs. having children age<10

  19. Choosing slippers (no resale)

  20. Choosing slippers vs. alternatives

  21. Altruism by gender Mothers are more likely to make the altruistic choice, but many fathers choose slippers as well.... We consider only individuals with barefoot kids, age <10 (N=92). Similar gender gap in altruism prevails if we include all parents with children, age<10 (N=187).

  22. Decisions per location/experiment • Altruistic decision of parents with children • The rate of altruistic decisions varies between 16% and 95% across sessions... treatment effects?

  23. Region differences: individual characteristics No sample differences across the two regions, apart from the ethnical identity (Sukuma vs. Haya).

  24. Region differences: family planning attitudes Access and knowledge of FP methods does not differ across the two samples; but individuals in Kagera are more likely to discuss FP with a partner; and with friends; and implementation of FP is expected less likely causing relationship problems. Also, eventual use of FP is higher in Kagera than in Mwanza.

  25. Region differences: female position Husbands are more likely to decide over wives income; and “should” have the final say in financial and FP matters in Mwanza than in Kagera.

  26. Sample differences - summary • No Kagera/Mwanza sample differences on individual characteristics level • BUT.... • ....the two regions differ significantly with respect to several variables characterizing .... • the female position (decision-making power), and • the family planning attitudes • Our Kagera sample shows more female empowerment and accompanying use of FP methods than our Mwanza sample.

  27. Corr.coefficients of explanatory variables... Discussing FP with friends is prevalentlycorrelated with other explanatory variables linked to altruistic choice in the experiment.

  28. Regression analysis Discussing FP with friends OR years of education can be used to explain the altruistic choice in the experiment; these ar enot correlated and may present two channels interacting with altruism: education vs. social influence.

  29. Conclusions • Akresh, Chen and Moore (2011). Altruism, Cooperation and Efficiency: Agricultural Production in Polygynous Households, IZA WP 6265 • "Our findings imply that there may be some notion of optimal social distance - perhaps policy makers could achieve better outcomes by targeting groups of individuals who belong to the same social network but are not directly connected (p.35)" • Parents are competing AND cooperating for scarce resources (time) at the same time; thus supplying the quality of children at suboptimal level; introducing influence from outside, from individuals that matter for the parents but are not in competition for the same resources, could increase efficiency

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