%0 Report
        %A Akresh, Richard
%A Chen, Joyce J
%A Moore, Charity
        %T Altruism, Cooperation, and Efficiency: Agricultural Production in Polygynous Households
        %D 2011
        %8 2011 Dec
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 6265
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp6265
        %X Altruism among family members can, in some cases, inhibit cooperation by increasing the utility that players expect to receive in a non-cooperative equilibrium. To test this, we examine agricultural productivity in polygynous households in West Africa. We find that cooperation is greater – production is more efficient – among co-wives than among husbands and wives because co-wives are less altruistic towards each other. The results are not driven by scale effects or self-selection into polygyny. Nor can they be explained by greater propensity for cooperation among women generally or by the household head acting as an enforcement mechanism for others' cooperative agreements.
        %K household bargaining
%K non-cooperative behavior
%K altruism
%K polygyny
%K Africa