when social norms allow the husband to coopt a large fraction of the wife’s income, empowerment programs should perform relatively better in terms of wife’s labor supply. Where norms limit that fraction, and where returns to household goods are high, interventions to foster cooperation among spouses should perform relatively better. Nonetheless, the best possible outcome clearly results when spouses cooperate and where the husband does not control his wife’s income, _C_ , _E_ .

# **4. Analysis**

# **4.1. Data**

In testing the model’s hypotheses, we use panel household survey data from the first two rounds of the Malawi Integrated Household Panel Survey (IHPS) which was implemented by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Household Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA)<sup>4</sup> program. In 2013, the IHPS attempted to track and resurvey 3,246 households across 204 enumeration areas (EAs) that had been previously surveyed as part of the Third Integrated Household Survey (IHS3) 2010/11. The IHPS sample had been designed in 2010 to be representative at the national-, urban/rural, regional levels, and for the six strata defined by the combinations of region and urban/rural domains. In 2013, IHPS targeted all individuals that were part of the IHS3, including those that moved away from the IHS3 dwelling locations between 2010 and 2013. Once a split-off individual was located, the new household that he/she formed or joined since the IHS3 interview was brought into the IHPS sample. As a result, the overall IHPS database includes 4,000 households, which could be traced back to 3,104 IHS3 households. Attrition was limited to only 3.8 and 7.4 percent, of households and individuals, respectively. Given our focus on intra-household decision-making in rural areas, the analysis sample includes 1,929 households that had the same principal couple in 2010 and 2013, who were residing in rural areas in both years.

The main IHPS fieldwork was carried out during the period of April-October 2013, with residual tracking operations conducted during the period of November-December 2013. The survey attempted to visit each household twice, identical to the IHS3 practice, within two weeks of the baseline interview timeframe, and with approximately three months in between visits. In both rounds, the sampled households were administered the multi-topic Household Questionnaire that collected individual-disaggregated information on demographics, education, health, wage employment, nonfarm enterprises, anthropometrics, as well as data on housing, food consumption, food and non-food expenditures, food security, and durable and agricultural asset ownership, among other topics. The sample households that were involved in agricultural activities (through ownership and/or cultivation of land, and/or ownership of livestock) were administered the

> 4 The Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) provides financial and technical support to governments in Sub-Saharan Africa in the design and implementation of multi-topic, national, panel household surveys with a strong focus on agriculture. The IHPS data and documentation are publicly available on www.worldbank.org/lsms.

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