The Competitive Woman: Evolutionary Insights and Cross-cultural Evidence into Finding the Femina Economica

Abstract : We propose to explain the gender gap in competitiveness often found in economic experiments with a theoretical framework rooted in evolutionary psychology: Women evolved adaptations to trade off the motivation to acquire resources in competitive environments for effort dedicated to invest directly into offspring, to attract and retain mates, and to not alienate potential allies. Such a tradeoff does not appear binding with the same intensity for men. We offer some initial tests of this idea by conducting a series of experiments using cash and vouchers (in-kind payments dedicated to either children’s needs, gender specific interests or gender neutral interests) to reward subjects at different life stages (parents and non-parents) from countries differing in economic development and culture (China, Togo, Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Colombia). Our main hypothesis is that the type of reward used in the experiment matters, as different types (cash or voucher) may induce specific frames which activate the motivation to compete in different domains of interest, with behavioral predictions that depend on an individual’s sex and life stage (parent and non-parent). Consistent with this view, our results on parents from China, Togo, and Sierra Leone show that, once the incentives are switched from cash to child-benefitting, sex differences in competitiveness disappear. Data on non-parents from Bosnia show that, once cash is substituted by gender stereotypical vouchers (e.g. beauty supplies or sporting goods), gender differences substantially decrease. Importantly, economic and cultural elements matter, as not all societies exhibit a gender gap to start with (Colombia and Nana Benz of Togo).

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Astrology and Matrimony: the Real Effects of Religious Beliefs About Marriage in Vietnam

Abstract : This paper investigates the real consequences of a system of unscientific, illogical religious beliefs in Vietnam. They prescribe that the matching of husband and wife can be auspicious or inauspicious depending on the pair of their birth years. First, we estimate a structural model of assortative marriage matching market, and show that such beliefs in marriage fortune matter to people’s marriage matching, as much as 15% of how much the age and education profile matters. Second, based on this model, we derive a control function for selection into marriage to estimate the effect of auspicious matches on household outcomes, free of the selection bias. We find that auspicious matches increase household expenditure and income by about 3%, and reduces school dropouts without changing the number and composition of children. The likely mechanism operates on relatives’ transfers in case of a negative shock: auspicious couples receive much more transfer when, say, the family suffers from a health shock. Third, we discuss how such testable, unscientific beliefs can persist when their refutation depends on actions 2-3 steps off the equilibrium path.

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Motivated Memory and the Intergenerational Transmission of Fertility Norms

Abstract : How do people form their beliefs about long-term processes in life that they later pass on to the next generation? This paper aims to study long-term memory of Kenyan women and men when it comes to their past reproductive desires 10 years ago and intergenerational transmission of their beliefs to the next generation. The study relies on survey experiments around respondents' recall behavior in a large, ongoing survey that makes use of past information about respondents' desired number of children from a survey when respondents were in their early 20s. Respondents' memory is inaccurate and biased, at least partly so for motivated reasons. Those who have more children than they initially desired are likely not to remember so and to avoid information about their past desires -- what is more, those who are not aware of their excess fertility would also advice the next generation to have more children than those with accurate memory. This combination of motivated memory and intergenerational transmission has the potential to contribute to cultural persistence and might also be behind the persistence of traditions such as female genital mutilation.

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