Collecting Data on Household Decision-Making in the Indonesian Family Life Survey

Elizabeth Frankenberg (RAND), Igust Ngurah Agung, Sri Moertiningsih Adioetomo, Wayan Suriastini (Lambaga Demografi)

This study focuses on the development of a survey instrument to facilitate intrahousehold policy analysis. Many extensive, nationally representative surveys are now collected in developing countries which address a large number of policy questions in relation to the choices that households make and changes in their well-being. However these surveys are largely unable to provide data with which to delve inside the household and learn about the mechanisms that underlie household and family decision-making.

This study will develop a set of questions that can be fielded as part of a broader multi-purpose survey. This survey instrument will then be utilized in Indonesia, as part of the second wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS). Indonesia is an ideal location for this type of instrument development given its extraordinary cultural diversity, ranging from matrilineal societies to patrilineal societies, and heterogeneity in the organization of the household economy which is believed to extend from female control of the "household purse", to separate purses, to income pooling.

The study will combine qualitative and quantitative methods. In the beginning focus groups will be formed. Based on analysis of the discussions in these groups a survey instrument will be drawn up which can elicit details on how household decision-making takes place. This instrument will then be extensively tested in pilot studies. Based on this testing the survey instrument will be modified and then included as part of the Indonesian and Family Life Survey-2 at the pre-testing stage. Following further modification the survey module will be incorporated within the full survey of IFLS-2.

In the pilot studies and IFLS-2 pretesting, the survey instrument will be administered to husbands and wives separately and the respective surveys will be used to cross-validate responses. This method will answer a critical, methodological question of broader interest: do husbands and wives know fully about each others' income?

After collection and documentation, IFLS-2 will be placed in the public domain, thus making the new survey module on intrahousehold decision-making widely available.