Money Pooling and Decision Making in the Household

Dana Hamplova, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Celine Le Bourdais, McGill University
Evelyne Lapierre-Adamcyk, Université de Montréal

The goal of the paper is to explore the association between the household allocation system (pooling versus non-pooling) and decision making and power relationship. Specifically, the paper focuses on the question of how is the choice between pooling, partial pooling, and non-pooling of money linked to financial decision making and division of domestic labor. It uses the 2011 Canadian Social Survey data that comprises a set of questions concerning couples’ money arrangements, decision making in the household and the division of domestic labor. The preliminary results suggest that independent money management tends to be associated with a pattern of decision making dominated by only one partner, particularly in case of occasional expensive items, but with less traditional division of domestic labor. However, the slight shift observed is not towards more equality between partners, but towards households in which men are more likely to take over the responsibility for domestic chores.