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Towards a Behavioural Theory of the Household

Research Project

Project/Area Number 17H02498
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field Economic theory
Research InstitutionNational Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

Principal Investigator

Munro Alistair  政策研究大学院大学, 政策研究科, 教授 (10515654)

Project Period (FY) 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2021)
Budget Amount *help
¥12,220,000 (Direct Cost: ¥9,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,820,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥2,990,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥690,000)
Fiscal Year 2018: ¥6,110,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,410,000)
Fiscal Year 2017: ¥3,120,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥720,000)
Keywordshousehold experiments / behavioral economics / economics experiments / Uganda / Household decisions / Bayes Theorem / household experiment / Japanese households / Intra-household / experimental economics / behavioural economics / experiment / intra-household / decision-making / household / experiments / Japan
Outline of Final Research Achievements

I do experiments in Uganda and Japan to understand how married couples make decisions. I conducted:
1.The first economics experiment to compare how married couples, individuals and pairs of strangers process new information. Married couples are worse than strangers, but better than individuals. When spouses are advised by their spouses, they listen to advice when they should not. In contrast, strangers ignore advice when they should follow it. 2.An online experiment with Japanese couples on household decision-making and communication. 3.An experiment run in community centres in Tokyo. This it is the first economics experiment with households in Japan. I find couples are extremely reluctant to adjust gender roles even when it would be profitable for them to do so.
I then developed new theories about how households process information. Plans were heavily restricted by the Covid-19 epidemic. To avoid wasting public money, significant parts of the budget were returned unspent.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

I have pioneered economics experiments with married couples and this methodology has spread around the world to other research groups in Europe and the USA. On the basis of the method, new interventions to improve household well-being have been devised in Africa.

Report

(4 results)
  • 2021 Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2019 Annual Research Report
  • 2018 Annual Research Report
  • 2017 Annual Research Report
  • Research Products

    (9 results)

All 2021 2020 2019

All Journal Article (2 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 2 results,  Peer Reviewed: 1 results) Presentation (7 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 5 results,  Invited: 3 results)

  • [Journal Article] Behavioral Household Economics.2020

    • Author(s)
      Alistair MUNRO and A. HOPFENSITZ
    • Journal Title

      Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics

      Volume: 0 Pages: 1-21

    • DOI

      10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_226-1

    • ISBN
      9783319573656
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Guilt, Gender, and Work-Life Balance in Japan: A Choice Experiment2020

    • Author(s)
      Chie AOYAGI and Alistair MUNRO
    • Journal Title

      IMF Working Papers

      Volume: 261 Issue: 261 Pages: 1-40

    • DOI

      10.5089/9781513515342.001

    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Do you listen to me: An experiment testing joint reasoning within married couples."2021

    • Author(s)
      Alistair Munro
    • Organizer
      Royal Economic Society Annual Conference
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Towards a behavioural model of the household?2021

    • Author(s)
      Alistair Munro
    • Organizer
      Symposium on economic experiments in developing countries (SEEDEC)
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Married by the Rev. Bayes? An experiment on communication within married couples2020

    • Author(s)
      Alistair Munro
    • Organizer
      Economic Science Association, World Conference
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Do You Listen to Me? An Experimental Test of Intra-household Communication,2019

    • Author(s)
      Alistair Munro
    • Organizer
      Western Economic Association
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Married by the Rev. Bayes?2019

    • Author(s)
      Alistair Munro
    • Organizer
      CIRJE, University of Tokyo
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Married by the Rev. Bayes?2019

    • Author(s)
      Alistair Munro
    • Organizer
      CEBESS, University of East Anglia, UK
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Guilt, gender and work-life balance in Japan: a choice experiment.2019

    • Author(s)
      Alistair Munro
    • Organizer
      Western Economic Association, International Conference
    • Related Report
      2018 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research

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Published: 2017-04-28   Modified: 2023-01-30  

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