Bridging the gender divide: an experimental analysis of group formation in African villages

ASC Working Papers

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A. Barr, M. Dekker and M. Fafchamps
Leiden: African Studies Centre, ASC working paper 87, 2009.

Assortative matching occurs in many social contexts. We experimentally investigate - gender assorting in sub-Saharan villages. In the experiment, co-villagers could form groups - to share winnings in a gamble choice game. The extent to which grouping arrangements - were or could be enforced and, hence, the distribution of interaction costs were exogenously - varied. Thus, we can distinguish between the eects of homophily and interaction costs on - the extent of observed gender assorting. We .nd that interaction costs matter .there is - less gender assorting when grouping depends on trust. In part, this is due to trust based on - co-memberships in gender-mixed religions