Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/71755 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7281
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In Brazil, wives do most of the household work. About sixty percent of them also work outside the household, working a total of about 10 hours more per week than men. Because of this unequal distribution of household work, husbands and wives might have different priorities regarding the purchase of durable goods. Although both husbands and wives enjoy entertainment durable goods, wives might have a relative preference for household-production durable goods such as washing machines over entertainment durable goods such as televisions. Using a Brazilian household consumption survey, we examine whether decisions about ownership of entertainment and production durable goods are the outcomes of a bargaining process between husbands and wives. We use several variables to measure bargaining power, including the ratio of women to men in a state. The results indicate that decisions about durable goods ownership are the outcomes of bargaining processes between husbands and wives with wives having a relative preference for household-production durable goods over entertainment durable goods compared to their husbands. Bargaining might explain why ownership of household production durable goods is relatively low in Brazil, despite their potential to save women's time.
Subjects: 
consumer durables
Brazil
household production
JEL: 
J16
J12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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