How do wives affect household tourism expenditure?

This study investigates the nonlinear, inverted U-shaped relationship between wives’ income share within the household and household tourism expenditure. Challenging the assumption of a uniform effect, the research highlights the complexity and evolving nature of intra-household power dynamics in financial decision-making by integrating feminist and rational choice perspectives. The study further develops a household decision-making model, suggesting that tourism expenditure reaches its peak when wives contribute approximately 50% of total household income. Empirical analysis employs a two-step generalized method of moments estimation, which supports the proposed inverted U-shaped relationship and confirms that household tourism expenditure is highest when wives’ income share is close to one-half of total household income. The findings are interpreted as consistent with the theoretical benchmark derived from the household decision-making model. Overall, these results offer important insights into the interaction between gender dynamics and economic decision-making, with meaningful implications for the formulation of sustainable tourism strategies.