Is it money or brains? the determinants of intra-family decision power

We empirically study the determinants of intra-household decision power with respect to
economic and financial choices using a suitable direct measure provided in the 1989-2010
Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth. Focusing on a sample of couples, we
evaluate the effect of each spouse's characteristics, household characteristics, and background
variables. We find that the probability that the wife is in charge is affected by household
characteristics such as family size and total income and wealth, but more importantly that it
increases with the difference between hers and her husband's characteristics in terms of age,
education, and income. The main conclusion is that decision-making power over family
economics is not only determined by strictly economic differences, as suggested by previous
studies, but also by differences in human capital and experience. Finally, exploiting the time
dimension of our dataset, we show that this pattern is increasing over time.