Only Mine or All Ours: Do Stronger Entitlements Affect Altruistic Choices in the Household

We introduce a novel allocation game to investigate the role of entitlements in household decision-making. Subjects can allocate their earnings on joint consumption good, or on gender-specific private consumption good. Subjects’ consumption choices are observed under two treatments: earning with effort, and earning without effort. Women’s choices for the joint consumption good in the household remain largely independent of the treatment. In contrast, men exhibit a stronger preference for private consumption good in the effort treatment. Additionally, using a survey we find that the observed choices in the experiment are consistent with existing social norms in our subject population.