Mosquito nets free vs. purchased.
 

I saw a link to this on Brad DeLong blog...

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/index_heavy.html

"This paper reports results from a field experiment in Uganda. Whether a mosquito net was purchased or received for free affected who within the household used the net. Free nets were more likely to be allocated to those members of the household most vulnerable to malaria, whereas purchased nets tended to be used by the households main income earners. The effect was strongest for free nets received by the mother, increasing the probability that all children five and younger slept under nets by 26 percent relative to when nets had been purchased by either parent or given to the father."

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/veh4/intra_hh.pdf

It would be interesting to see if this same pattern holds up across other humanitarian efforts, as they say "Mental accounts, gender, or both?"

"When a mosquito net has been purchased, the decision of who will use that net appears to turn on a financial cost-benefit calculation, with income-earners and the individual purchasing the net prioritized for net use. On the other hand, receiving a net for free induces parents to allocate nets to children in accordance with the public health message accompanying net distribution. In particular, the welfare of children is given greater weight by married women who have received free mosquito nets.'

Just some misc. lunch-time reading.

I think this model holds true for video games. If I go out and buy a game for the 360, it's for me and I'm the only one who really plays with it. OTOH, if the wife buys a game or two on sale for the 'rest of the family', I'll never play them and they're only used by the kids.

It all comes full circle - malaria nets to the xbox.