Abstract

We study how endogenous wage disclosure within households shapes labor supply, household production, and welfare. Using Japanese survey data that record spousal earnings disclosure, we document systematic allocation differences across disclosure regimes: non-disclosure is associated with wives' longer market hours, less home production, and lower household public-good expenditure. We develop and estimate a two-stage model in which spouses choose whether to disclose wages before allocating time and resources in a noncooperative public-goods game. Non-disclosure exposes the partner to a selection-distorted posterior, creating information rents when realized wages are high. For high-earning wives, this strategic motive is reinforced by gender-specific disclosure costs; for high-earning husbands, disclosure preferences work in the opposite direction. Counterfactual full disclosure leaves public-good expenditure nearly unchanged but reallocates work, consumption, and welfare shares.