Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Intra-household decisions'

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
Na presença de imperfeições no mercado de crédito, a distribuição de riqueza se torna importante para explicar o desenvolvimento econômico de um país. Pois, quando a obtenção de financiamento é insuficiente ou inviável, criase uma relação entre a riqueza de um indivíduo e suas decisões de investimento. Este artigo apresenta evidência empírica de que restrições de crédito afetam substancialmente decisões cruciais das famílias brasileiras - escolha ocupacional do chefe e do cônjuge, educação de crianças e trabalho infantil. A falta de crédito é detectada pelo fato dos agentes estarem restritos por sua riqueza em suas escolhas. Utilizando os dados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD), observou-se, para os diferentes tipos de família, uma forte relação entre riqueza e decisões intra- familiares. Os resultados sugerem que esta relação parece ser mais intensa para cônjuges, casais sem filhos e para as mães solteiras. No caso das crianças, as meninas são mais afetadas pela falta de crédito.
In the presence of credit market imperfections, the distribution of wealth becomes a key factor in explaining a country's economic development. When outside financing is unavailable or insufficient, a link between an agent's wealth and his investment decisions is created. This paper provides empirical evidence on credit constraints and key intra-household decisions in Brazil; namely, occupational choice of heads and spouses, child labor and education. Our empirical strategy is based on the literature about wealth- constrained choices, in which credit constraints determine a relationship between initial wealth and household decisions. Using data from the National Surveys of Households (PNAD), we show a strong connection between wealth and such decisions. Our findings suggest credit constraints are relatively more binding for spouses, couples without children and single mothers. For the case of children, the girls are more affected by the lack of credit.

Cette thèse analyse les modèles d'inégalités intra-ménage dans les pays non développés et la manière dont ils sont affectés par la culture et les politiques. À l'aide d'enquêtes sur les dépenses des ménages, j'utilise un modèle collectif pour analyser la répartition de la consommation des ménages et ses moteurs, et pour évaluer ses implications pour la pauvreté individuelle.Dans le premier chapitre, je présente des résultats inédits sur la répartition des ressources au sein des ménages dans 45 pays à revenu faible ou intermédiaire. Les résultats révèlent que les femmes sont presque deux fois plus pauvres que les hommes à l'échelle mondiale, et que les enfants sont encore plus démunis. En outre, les disparités au sein des ménages sont plus prononcées dans les pays pauvres et, au sein des pays, parmi les ménages pauvres.Dans le deuxième chapitre, je cherche à savoir si les coutumes de résidence post-matrimoniale fondées sur la parenté - en particulier la patrilocalité (résidence avec les parents du marié) et la matrilocalité (résidence avec les parents de la mariée) - continuent d'influencer le partage de la consommation des ménages et les niveaux de pauvreté individuels au Ghana et au Malawi. L'analyse indique que la patrilocalité ancestrale, comparée à la matrilocalité, correspond à une allocation réduite des ressources aux femmes et à une incidence notablement plus élevée de la pauvreté chez les femmes pour les différents niveaux de consommation des ménages.Dans le troisième chapitre, j'examine l'impact du plus grand programme d'aide sociale de l'Uruguay, qui cible les familles pauvres avec enfants et qui est versé aux femmes. En utilisant un modèle de discontinuité de la régression dans un cadre d'estimation structurelle, je constate une augmentation significative de l'allocation des ressources aux femmes éligibles dans les zones rurales, sans effets sur les enfants. Je traduis ces résultats en termes de pauvreté individuelle : tous les membres de la famille bénéficient de l'effet de revenu, mais l'effet de négociation réduit encore plus la pauvreté des femmes
This dissertation analyzes the patterns of intra-household inequalities in non-developed countries and how they are affected by culture and policies. Using household expenditure surveys, I employ a collective model to analyze household consumption allocation and its drivers, and to assess its implications for individual poverty.In the first chapter, I present novel findings on intra-household resource distribution for 45 low- and middle-income countries. The results reveal that women are nearly twice as poor as men on a global scale, with children experiencing even greater deprivation. Furthermore, intra-household disparities are more pronounced in poor countries and, within countries, among poor households.In the second chapter, I investigate whether kinship-based post-marital residence customs—specifically, patrilocality (residing with the groom's parents) and matrilocality (residing with the bride's parents)—continue to influence household consumption sharing and individual poverty levels in Ghana and Malawi. Analysis indicates that ancestral patrilocality, compared to matrilocality, corresponds with reduced resource allocation to women and a notably higher incidence of poverty among women across various household consumption levels.In the third chapter, I examine the impact of Uruguay's largest social assistance program, which targets poor families with children and paid to women. Employing a regression discontinuity design within a structural estimation framework, I find a significant increase in resource allocation to eligible women in rural areas, with no effects on children. I translate these results into terms of individual poverty: all family members benefit from the income effect, but the bargaining effect reduces women's poverty even more

This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first one (Chapter three), "Gains and Losses from Household Formation," I introduce a general equilibrium model, wherein a household may consist of more than one member, each with their own preferences and endowments. In these models at first, individuals form households. Then, collective decisions (or bargaining) within the household specifies the consumption plans of household members. Finally, competition across households determines a feasible allocation of resources. I consider a model with two types of individuals and pure group externalities. I investigate the competitive equilibrium allocation and stability of the equilibrium in that setting. Specifically, I show that under a certain set of assumptions a competitive equilibrium with free exit is also a competitive equilibrium with free household formation. Similar results are obtained for a special case of consumption externality. Illustrative examples, where prices may change as household structures change, are used to show how general equilibrium model with variable household structure works and some interesting results are discussed at the end of the first essay. In the second essay (Chapter four), “Effects of the Price System on Household Labor Supply,” I introduce leisure and labor into the two-type economy framework that was constructed in the first essay. The main objective of this essay is to investigate the effects of exogenous prices on the labor supply decisions, and completely analyze the partial equilibrium model outcomes in a two-type economy setting. I assume a wage gap and explore the effect of that gap on labor supply. The main content of the second essay is the analysis of the effect of change in wages, price of the private good, power of each individual in the household, relative importance of private consumption compared to leisure, and the level of altruism on individual's decisions about how much private good or leisure he/she wants to consume. The effect of a relative price change on labor supply, private consumption and utility level is also investigated. Moreover, one of the variations of Spence's signaling model is borrowed to explain why higher education of women in Iran does not necessarily translate into higher female labor force participation. Finally, fixed point theorem is used to calculate the power (or alternatively labor supply) of individuals in the household endogenously for the two-type economy with labor at the end of this essay. In the third essay (Chapter five), “Dynamics of Poverty in Iran: What Are the Determinants of the Probability of Being Poor?,” I explore the characteristics of the households who fall below the poverty line and stay there as well as those who climb up later. I decompose poverty in Iran into chronic and transient poverty, and investigate the relation of each component of poverty with certain characteristics of households. I also study mobility and the main characteristics of growth in expenditure of households. One of the main issues in economic policy making nowadays is the evaluation of effectiveness of anti-poverty programs. In order to achieve this goal one should be able to track down a household for a period of time. In this essay, I am going to investigate the dynamics of poverty in Iran during 1992-95. I am especially interested in finding the characteristics of the households that fall below the poverty line and stay there in addition to those that climb up later. Obviously, if policy-makers want to have efficient policies to reduce poverty, they should target the former group. I decompose poverty in Iran into chronic and transient poverty, and investigate the relation of each component of poverty with certain characteristics of households. I also study mobility in this period with an emphasis on mobility in and out of poverty and review the main characteristics of the growth in expenditure of households.
Ph. D.

This dissertation comprises four chapters, which mainly deal with female's participation in household decision-making, a very important aspect of female's bargaining power within the household and closely linked to female's empowerment. The first three chapters, which all deal with female's participation in household decision-making, are two sides of the same coin, in that while the first one delves into the determinants of female's participation in household decision-making, the second and third chapters deal with its beneficial consequences. The fourth chapter is linked with Chapter 1. As a matter of fact, the data used in Chapter 1 has been collected in Rural Burundi, in the framework of the FNRS/FRFC-funded project “Microfinance Services, Intra-household Behavior and Welfare in Developing Countries: A Longitudinal and Experimental Approach”, which funded my PhD scholarship. In 2012, the project funded data collection in Rural Burundi. In respect to the experimental component of the project, these are baseline data. The 2012 household survey targeted a sample of rural households that have been interviewed in 1998 and 2007. This is where the longitudinal design of the project comes into play. Independently from the experimental research, the longitudinal nature of the data, that is to say three waves of data (1998, 2007 and 2012), had the advantage of allowing panel analysis of interesting and relevant issues in development, including for example the long-term welfare effects of shocks at either individual or household levels.In Chapter 1, entitled “The Power of The Family: kinship and Intra-household Decision-making in Rural Burundi” and co-authored with Bram De Rock and Philip Verwimp, we delve into the determinants of female's participation in household decision-making, by laying a particular emphasis on the role of female's kinship. We show that in rural Burundi the characteristics of the female's kinship are highly correlated with her decision-making power. First, a female whose own immediate family is at least as rich as her husband's counterpart enjoys a greater say over children- and asset-related decision-making. Second, the size, relative wealth and proximity of the extended family also matter. Third, kinship characteristics prove to be more important than (standard) individual and household characteristics. Finally, we also show that the female's say over asset-related decision-making is positively associated with males' education, more than with female's education per se. All these correlation patterns can inform policies aiming at empowering women or targeting children through women's empowerment.In Chapter 2, entitled “The Returns of I Do: Multifaceted Female Decision-making and Agricultural Yields in Tanzania?”, I use the third round of the Tanzanian National Panel Survey to investigate the effect of multifaceted female's empowerment in agriculture on agricultural yields. The classic approach in the empirical literature on gender gap in agriculture includes the gender of the plot's owner/manager as the covariate of interest and interprets the associated coefficient estimate as the gender gap in agricultural productivity. Unlike this classic approach in the analysis of productivity differentials, my approach lays emphasis on the overlapping and interaction effects of manifold aspects of female's empowerment in agriculture, including female plot's ownership, female plot's management and female output's control. I find significant productivity gaps, which the classic empirical approach does not bring out in the same context. As compared to plots (solely) owned, managed and controlled by male, (i) plots merely owned by female and (ii) those owned & managed (but not controlled) by female are less productive, but those owned, managed & controlled by female are not. Furthermore, the latter are the more productive among plots at least owned by female. All these productivity gaps are predominantly explained by the structural effect, that is differences in productivity returns to observable production factors. Our findings are robust along a number of dimensions and suggest that female's management and control rights are of prime importance. Therefore, female plot's owners should be entitled the rights to manage their plot and, subsequently and most importantly, the rights to control the (agricultural) output of their work, for their productivity to be enhanced and the gender gap in agriculture to be closed. In Chapter 3, entitled “Say On Income and Children's Outcomes: Evidence from Nigeria”, I delve into the effect of female bargaining power on child education and labor outcomes in Nigeria. Female bargaining power is proxied by “female say on labor income”, rather than by her income per se. This is motivated by the fact the female labor force participation might be low in some contexts, while control over income is by all means what matters the most. The empirical methodology accounts for a number of empirical issues, including endogeneity and sample selection issues of female say on labor income, the multi-equation and mixed process features of the child outcomes, as well as the fact that hours of work are left-censored. My findings are consistent with the overall idea that female say on income leads to better child outcomes, rather than female income earning per se. Nevertheless, the type of income under female control, child gender and child outcome matter. Chapter 4, entitled “Violence Exposure and Welfare Over Time: Evidence From The Burundi Civil War” and co-authored with Marion Mercier and Philip Verwimp, investigates the relationship between exposure to conflict and poverty dynamics over time. We use a three-wave panel data from Burundi, which tracked individuals and reported local-level violence exposure in 1998, 2007 and 2012. Firstly, the data reveal that headcount poverty has not changed since 1998 while we observe multiple transitions into and out of poverty. Moreover, households exposed to the war exhibit a lower level of welfare than non-exposed households, with the difference between the two groups predicted to remain significant at least until 2017, i.e. twelve years after the conflict termination. The correlation between violence exposure and deprivation over time is confirmed in a household-level panel setting. Secondly, our empirical investigation shows how violence exposure over different time spans interacts with households' subsequent welfare. Our analysis of the determinants of households' likelihood to switch poverty status (i.e. to fall into poverty or escape poverty) combined with quintile regressions suggest that, (i) exposure during the first phase of the conflict has affected the entire distribution, and (ii) exposure during the second phase of the conflict has mostly affected the upper tail of the distribution: initially non-poor households have a higher propensity to fall into poverty while initially poor households see their propensity to pull through only slightly decrease with recent exposure to violence. Although not directly testable with the data at hand, these results are consistent with the changing nature of violence in the course of the Burundi civil war, from relatively more labor-destructive to relatively more capital-destructive.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

AN INVESTIGATION OF INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INTERACTIONS IN TRAVEL MODE CHOICE This thesis develops a modelling framework to integrate intra-household interactions with tour-based mode choice. The findings provide evidence of intra-household interactions in travel mode choice of each household member and highlight factors associated with joint household activities and shared ride arrangements, with a distinction between weekdays and weekends. The results indicate that household resources, mobility and social constraints, and opportunities to coordinate household members’ activities play an important role in arranging joint household travel. Also, modelling outputs signal the differences that interpersonal interactions make to model elasticities and the implications for transport policy. The originality and the contribution of this research lie in four main areas. First, it tests the relevance of interactions between household members to household mode choice decisions and adds an additional ‘layer of interactions’ to the activity-based modelling framework. The study offers an analysis of household travel decisions embedding context and situation effects, thereby reflecting more realistically the nature of travel decisions. Second, this study offers a typology of joint household tour patterns embedded in a modelling approach which permits a variety of activity-travel patterns amongst all household members together with intra-household interactions. Third, the research provides evidence on the effects of land use factors measured at the micro-level so as to identify which aspects of the built environment are most likely to support policy change for sustainable transport choices. Finally, by separating weekend activity-travel from their weekday counterparts, this study is able to quantify empirically differences which suggest different transport management measures aimed to alleviate traffic congestion and promote public transport use.

After surveying the literature on the economics of household decision-making, we employ data from the 2010 European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) to study the relationship between personal characteristics such as gender and decision-making power and responsibility. We find that across Europe, women more often make decisions about everyday spending and purchases for children, while it is mainly men who make the financial decisions in a household. Greater intrahousehold inequality in income and education is correlated with a lower probability of couples making decisions together, as is having a housewife in the home. Interesting patterns of household decision-making across countries emerge; in the Southern European countries, for example, educational differences do not seem to be strongly related to decision-making power and responsibility, and women in Eastern European countries are more likely to make financial decisions when the household reports facing difficult economic conditions. (authors' abstract)
Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Thesis (MComm)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Social assistance is a large and fiscally costly component of anti-poverty policy in South Africa and therefore lends to the questions: Are the grants effective tools for reducing poverty in South Africa and, moreover, how significant is their impact on poverty? As a measure of reducing poverty and improving the non-social indicators of the poor, the government has expanded the social grants since the advent of the new democracy. The country‟s social grant system is advanced and covers a broad range of individuals, as it is intended to cover vulnerable individuals over their life course from childhood to adulthood and into old age. Policy discourse surrounding the grants centres on the sustainability of the system and their implications for development. It is therefore important that their significance is shown and that their impact is illustrated by highlighting their reach into severely poor households. As a measure of poverty alleviation on their own, the grants are not enough and South Africa‟s poverty alleviation strategy has to rest primarily on economic growth and job creation. In addition, there are significant challenges in the system, such as the fact that there is no poverty grant targeted specifically at the unemployed; consequently, too much strain is placed on the resources of grant-receiving households that the whole household is plunged into poverty. Accordingly, the question this raises is: How can government solve the problem of the poor clustering around these grants? This dissertation will systematically show that the use of social security as a poverty-alleviating tool is effective given the extent of poverty in South Africa and the limitations on resources. It will also show that the decision-making structures in households influence the way grants affect the resource allocation needed for achieving lower levels of poverty. The extent to which the cash transferred to poor households via the grant programmes reduces poverty is likely to be influenced significantly by the decision-making structures in the grant-receiving households. There is evidence that grant money is shared in extended households, which suggests that decision making is broadly unitary or cooperative. However, we can only observe the outcomes and not the decision-making process in this regard and therefore can only draw tentative conclusions. Although there is cause for concern regarding the propensity of social grants to affect people‟s behaviour negatively, there is a case to be made for retaining grants as an important, though not the only, form of anti-poverty strategy. This highlights the need for continued research on the labour market and the social grants causal relationship. It also shows that research into the fertility effects of the grants is wanting, especially if there are speculative concerns that might inform policy on the impact of CSG on fertility.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sosiale bystand is „n groot en duur fiskale komponent van anti-armoede verligtingsbeleid in Suid Afrika en lei daarom tot die vrae: Is die toelaes effektiewe instrumente om armoede te verlig in Suid Afrika, en nog meer, hoe noemenswaardig is hulle impak op armoede? As „n maatstaf om armoede te verlig en die nie-sosiale armoede- aanwysers te verbeter van die armes, het die regering die sosiale toelaes vermeerder sedert die aanvang van demokrasie. Die land se sosiale toelae stelsel is gevorderd en dek „n wye verskeidenheid groepe van individue, aangesien dit bedoel is om weerlose individue te dek vanaf kind tot volwassene deurlopend tot die bejaarde. Beleidsdiskoers om die toelaes fokus op die volhoubaarheid van die stelsel en die implikasies daarvan vir ontwikkeling. Dit is daarom van belang dat die belangrikheid hiervan uitgewys word en die impak daarvan geillustreer word, deur op hul trefkrag te fokus in die armste van huishoudings. As „n middel to armoedeverligting op sigself is toelaes nie voldoende nie, en Suid-Afrika se armoede verligtingstrategie moet hoofsaaklik lê in werkskepping en ekonomiese groei. Verder is daar belangrike uitdagings in die stelsel, soos byvoorbeeld die feit dat daar geen armoede toelaes spesifiek gemik op die werkloses is nie; „n gevolg hiervan is dat daar te veel druk geplaas word op die bronne van die huishoudings wat toelaes ontvang en dat die hele huishouding in armoede gedompel word. Gevolglik ontstaan die vraag: Hoe kan die regering die probleem oplos van konsentrering van die armes rondom die toelaes? Hierdie dissertasie sal sistematies wys dat die gebruik van sosiale sekuriteit as „n armoede- verligtingsbeleid is effektiek gegewe die omvangreikheid van armoede in Suid Afrika en die beperkings op bronne. Dit sal ook wys dat die besluitnemingstrukture in huishoudings beinvloed die manier waarop toelaes die bron-allokasie beinvloed om laer vlakke van armoede te bereik. Die vlak waartoe die kontant oordraging na die arm huishoudings via die toelaes die vlak van armoede verlig word in alle waarskynlikheid tot „n groot mate beinvloed deur die besluitnemingstrukture in sodanige huishoudings wat toelaes ontvang. Daar is bewyse dat die toelaes gedeel word in uitgebreide huishoudings, wat daarop aandui dat besluitneming breedweg unitêr geneem word of gesamentlik. Ons kan egter slegs die uitkomste en nie die besluitnemingsproses in die verband bespeur nie en kan daarom slegs tot tentatiewe gevolgtrekkings kom. Alhoewel daar wel rede to kommer is vir die geneigdheid van toelaes om mense se gedrag negatief te beinvloed, is waar wel „n saak om toelaes te behou, hoewel nie as die enigste, maar wel as „n belangrike vorm van armoedeverligting. Dit lê die klem op die nodigheid van deurlopende navorsing op die arbeidsmark en die toelae- oorsaaklikheidsverhouding. Dit wys ook dat navorsing op die vrugbaarheidseffek van die toelaes is nodig, veral as daar spekulatiewe besorgdheid is wat die beleid op die impak van kindertoelaes op fertiliteit mag beinvloed.

Le capital social est un concept de plus en plus populaire en économie mais des ambiguïtés persistent quant à la manière de saisir l'aspect "social" de la vie humaine et d'interpréter le terme "capital". Par rapport aux précédents travaux, cette thèse fournit des outils analytiques nouveaux pour identifier et mesurer le capital social et étudier son rôle dans le bien-être individuel. Dans une perspective théorique, ces outils apportent un éclairage sur les raisons de ses différentes interprétations. Nous définissons d'abord le capital social comme l'ensemble des attentes et obligations que les individus accumulent lors des interactions et identifions trois dimensions le composant: l'homogénéité entre individus, la fréquence des contacts et la hiérarchisation des relations. Ces dimensions sont responsables de la fonction de coordination, attribuée au capital social, et du vaste éventail d'effets observés jusqu'à présent. Ce cadre est opérationnalisé à l’aide d’une mesure d’un index multidimensionnel au niveau individuel en Indonésie et un lien avec l'approche des capabilités est établi avec pour objectif de mieux identifier les canaux à travers lesquels le capital social impacte le bien être d’individus. Dans une perspective empirique, une étude des déterminants de l'empowerment des femmes est ensuite proposée avec, comme principale variable explicative, le capital social. Cette thèse démontre que le capital social est, tout d’abord, un concept fondamental dans la compréhension de la capacité à agir et dans le bien-être d’individus et que, de plus, celui-ci peut générer des effets négatifs sur l'empowerment des femmes, simultanément à ses effets positifs et prépondérants
In the last decades, the concept of social capital has gained increasing popularity in economics. Yet substantial ambiguity exists about how to assess the "social" aspect of human life and what meaning to attribute to the term "capital". To shed a new light on the concept, I develop a new conceptual framework and I make it operational for analysis and policy in the context of development by investigating issues of gender empowerment. From a theoretical perspective, this conceptual framework defines social capital as the amount of expectations and obligations that individuals accumulate when they interact and identifies its constituting dimensions: homogeneity among individuals, frequency of contacts and hierarchization of relationships. These dimensions are responsible for the function of coordination, attributed to social capital, as well for the wide range of outcomes observed in the literature. This framework is then operationalized through an index of social capital at the individual level in Indonesia. A connection with the capability approach to welfare economics is established to better understand those channels through which social capital affects individual well-being. At the empirical level, an investigation of the determinants of women empowerment in the household is consequently proposed, with social capital as the main explanatory variable. This work shows that the concept of social capital is fundamental to explore individuals' agency and well-being and that it has both positive and negative effects on women empowerment

L'un des principaux objectifs de l'économie du développement est de produire des résultats facilement transposables en recommandations politiques. Ma thèse explore deux sujets qui peuvent influencer les politiques visant à autonomiser les femmes et à améliorer le fonctionnement des institutions publiques en Amérique Latine.Dans le premier chapitre, j'étudie pourquoi les mères qui travaillent au Mexique consacrent en moyenne 18 heures de plus par semaine au travail rémunéré et non rémunéré que les pères. En particulier, j'examine le rôle des normes de genre dans la détermination de cette disparité de temps de travail. Pour ce faire, j'étends un modèle collectif d'offre de travail avec production ménagère pour inclure les normes de genre et je l'estime en utilisant les données d'enquête mexicaines de 2002, 2005 et 2009. Je constate que des normes de genre plus égalitaires réduisent la disparité totale du temps de travail entre les conjoints et que leur impact est comparable à celui des salaires. Par exemple, une augmentation de 16 points de pourcentage dans un indice de normes de genre entre 2002 et 2005 a entraîné une réduction de 2,6 heures dans la disparité totale du temps de travail, principalement grâce à une augmentation du pouvoir de négociation des femmes. Pour obtenir la même réduction de 2,6 heures, les salaires des femmes devraient augmenter de 11% par rapport aux niveaux de 2005.Dans le deuxième chapitre, en utilisant des données longitudinales sur la prise de décision au sein du ménage au Mexique, j'explore l'impact d'un environnement violent, mesuré par les homicides, sur les décisions des conjoints et leur pouvoir de négociation. Je constate qu'une augmentation du taux d'homicides diminue le nombre de décisions prises par les femmes et les hommes, réduisant ainsi le nombre de décisions prises conjointement. Par exemple, l'augmentation moyenne de 9,3 homicides dans le taux d'homicides sur douze mois pendant la guerre contre la drogue a entraîné une diminution de 6% du nombre de décisions prises conjointement par les couples par rapport à la base. Les changements dans les décisions conjointes représentent un renversement dans des sphères de décision plus historiquement liées au genre, les hommes réduisant leur participation aux décisions concernant l'éducation et les vêtements des enfants, tandis que les femmes réduisent leurs décisions sur les biens de consommation privés masculins et les grandes dépenses.Dans le troisième chapitre, co-écrit avec Daniel Chen, Manuel Ramos-Masqueda et Bernardo Silveira, nous examinons dans quelle mesure les frictions informationnelles dans la gestion constituent un obstacle significatif à la productivité des tribunaux au Chili. Tout d'abord, nous avons promu de manière aléatoire l'utilisation d'une plateforme en ligne présentant des statistiques de tribunal par le biais de campagnes de courrier électronique dirigées vers les gestionnaires de tribunaux. Ensuite, au sein de cette plateforme, nous avons simplifié la rétroaction principale de la page d'accueil contenant les informations sur les statistiques du tribunal et aléatoirement attribué aux gestionnaires l'accès à cette information. Nous constatons que la promotion par courrier électronique et la simplification de la rétroaction de la page d'accueil améliorent la productivité des tribunaux selon plusieurs indicateurs. Par exemple, la nouvelle page d'accueil simplifiée a augmenté la résolution des cas d'un écart-type pour ceux qui se connectent à la plateforme. De plus, nous constatons que les traitements sont plus efficaces pour les gestionnaires de tribunaux plus expérimentés, qui ont des croyances de base moins précises. Cela suggère que la réduction des frictions informationnelles améliore non seulement la performance globale des tribunaux, mais aide également à combler l'écart de performance entre les gestionnaires de tribunaux moins et plus expérimentés
One of the main objectives of development economics is to produce findings that easily translate into policy recommendations. My thesis explores two topics that can influence policies aimed at empowering women and improving the functioning of public institutions in Latin America. In the first two chapters, I investigate the impact of gender norms and exposure to violence on women's decision-making power within households in Mexico. In the third chapter, I examine how reducing information frictions can enhance the use of public administrative data to improve the management and services of courts in Chile.In the first chapter, I investigate why working mothers in Mexico dedicate an average of eighteen hours more to weekly paid and unpaid work than fathers. Particularly, I examine the role gender norms play in determining this work time disparity. To do so, I extend a collective labor supply model with household production to include gender norms and estimate it using Mexican survey data from 2002, 2005, and 2009. The model predictions can replicate the changes in total work time disparity over time. I find that more egalitarian gender norms reduce the total work time disparity between spouses and that their impact is comparable with that of wages. For example, a 16 percentage-point increase in a gender norm index between 2002 and 2005 caused a 2.6-hour decrease in total work time disparity mainly through an increase in women's bargaining power. To achieve the same 2.6-hour reduction, women's wages would need to increase by 11% over 2005 levels.In the second chapter, using longitudinal data on household decision-making in Mexico, I explore the impact of a violence environment, measured by homicides, on spouses' decisions and their bargaining power. I find that an increase in the homicide rate decreases the number of decisions taken by women and men, thus reducing the number of decisions taken jointly. For example, the average increase of 9.3 homicides in the twelve-month homicide rate during the War on Drugs caused couples to decrease the number of joint decisions by 6% from its baseline. The changes in joint decisions represent a reversal into more historical gender spheres of decisions, with men lowering their participation in decisions about children's education and clothing while women reducing their decisions on male private consumption goods and large expenditures. Suggesting that although the reduction in number of decisions was similar for both women and men, community violence might dis-empower women in the household.The last topic I analyse in this thesis relates to public institutions. In Latin America, there is a wealth of administrative data available from public institutions. However, a lack of data management and analytic skills is a significant barrier to utilizing this data for evidence-based decision-making. In the third chapter, co-authored with Daniel Chen, Manuel Ramos-Masqueda, and Bernardo Silveira, we examine the extent to which information frictions in management are a meaningful barrier to court productivity in Chile. First, we randomly promote the use of an online platform featuring court statistics through email campaigns directed towards court managers. Second, within this platform, we simplify the main homepage feedback containing the information on court statistics and randomize managers' access to it. We find that the email promotion and the simplification of the homepage feedback enhance court productivity across multiple indicators. For instance, the new simplified homepage increased case clearance by one standard deviation for those who log into the platform. Additionally, we find that the treatments are more effective for more experienced court managers, who have less accurate baseline beliefs. This suggests that reducing information frictions not only enhances overall court performance but also helps bridge the performance gap between less and more experienced court managers

Cette thèse traite des mesures à prendre afin d'assurer le succès de projets de développement exécutés par des firmes privées, et plus particulièrement les Organisations Non Gouvernementales (ONGs). Les ONGs sont des firmes à but non lucratif qui sont semblables aux gouvernements dans leur préoccupation pour le bien-être des bénéficiaires et aux firmes privées standard sur le plan organisationnel. Leur participation aux projets de développement soulève la question de savoir si elles sont plus efficaces que ces entités similaires. Malgré la croissance rapide du secteur ONG, surtout des multinationales basées dans les pays riches avec des branches implantées dans les pays pauvres, peu de recherches en économie de développement se sont intéressées à comment la nature d’une organisation peut affecter son comportement dans l’implémentation des projets de développement. Les trois chapitres de cette thèse soulignent des différences entre Les ONG, les firmes privées et les gouvernements et examinent comment la nature même de chaque type d'organisation affecte sa fourniture de services publics. Les deux questions-clés sont donc pourquoi et sous quelles des conditions choisir une ONG comme fournisseur de biens et services dans le cadre d'un projet de développement, et comment s’assurer que les normes culturelles des bénéficiaires n’affectent négativement la réussite desdits projets
This thesis addresses the question of how to ensure the success of development projects executed by private firms, especially Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). NGOs are non-profit firms that are similar to governments in their concern about beneficiaries' welfare and to standard private firms in their organizational form. Their involvement in development projects raises the issue of how well they perform in service provision compared to alternative entities. Despite the rapid growth of the non-profit sector, especially international firms based in high-income countries that operate in low-income countries, the existing literature on economic development has hardly investigated the issue of non-profit performance and regulation. The three chapters of this thesis emphasize differences between NGOs and either private for-profit firms or governements, and examine how the very nature of each type of organization affects service provision. The two key questions are why and under which conditions to choose an NGO as goods or services provider in the framework of a development project, and how to ensure beneficiaries' cultural norms do not undermine the success of development projects