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Paper short abstract:

Intra-Household resource allocation clearly favors men in a patriarchal society. However, the evidence suggests that resources at the disposal of women best spent on the welfare of whole household. This paper answers if education defies these deep-rooted cultural norms of male superiority.

Paper long abstract:

Household resource allocation clearly favors men in a patriarchal society, though women best spent resources on the overall welfare of the household. This paper answers if education defies these deep-rooted cultural norms of male superiority. To carry out the research, we played a household allocation game to explore the impact of economic entitlements on intra-household altruistic choices among spouses controlling for their socio-economic circumstances (age, education, years being married, number of children, monthly household income, savings, conflict, household size, household structure and house ownership, among others). Extra-lab experiment is being conducted and subjects are studied under two different treatments (effort and non-effort). Subjects were given a choice between private consumption bundle and joint consumption bundle under both the treatments. Our results show that in a patriarchal society women are more altruistic as most of them preferred joint consumption bundle over the private consumption bundle in both the treatments even after controlling for their education. Men, on the other hand, preferred private consumption good particularly in the effort treatment. Our results hold their significance even in the presence of conflict among the spouses. The insignificant coefficient of education further advocate that, cultural norms and attitudes regarding the male superiority are so embedded in our society that education hardly makes a dent. The findings advocate institutions to recognize and empower women for leadership role in household resource allocation which eventually not only leads to more symmetric power relations among spouses but also inches towards socially optimal levels of equilibrium.