Joint forces - The impact of intrahousehold cooperation on welfare in East African agricultural households

In low- and middle income countries, poor cooperation between members of smallholder agricultural households may lead to inefficient allocation of productive resources. This study assesses the impact of an intensive coaching package for couples in participatory intrahousehold decision-making. Using a random encouragement design, we estimate the causal mediating effect of cooperation between spouses on household welfare and household public goods provision in monogamous smallholder coffee farming households in Uganda and Tanzania. Spousal cooperation has significant positive causal mediating effects on total household income per capita and food security, as measures of household welfare. It also positively affects adoption intensity of agronomic practices and the likelihood of using improved seed for food crops, as measures of household public goods provision. There is some evidence of heterogeneous mediation effects. Spousal cooperation has larger effects on total household income per capita with longer duration of marriage.