Abstract: Standard household models in economics are bargaining models, in which joint decisions are determined by spouses’ threat points. Psychology and other disciplines, on the other hand, view the nature of communication as key for determining joint decisions. We conduct a field experiment in rural India to evaluate a training for wives in effective communication. We consider effects on an outcome that women in our setting are often more interested in than their husbands: women’s employment. We find two key results. First, the treatment shifted women’s communication styles towards the effective techniques taught in the training. Second, the treatment increased labor supply of women who, at baseline, were more interested than their husbands in the women working.

Bio: Maddie McKelway is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Dartmouth College. Before joining Dartmouth, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's King Center on Global Development. She received her PhD in economics from MIT in 2020. Professor McKelway's research is in development economics. Much of her work studies the empowerment and employment of women in India.