Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
•Moving beyond who decides, we use vignettes to identify why certain household members make decisions in rural Senegal.•Outcomes that appear to be related to the gender of the decision-maker are actually driven by decision-making typologies.•Households where the most informed men (women) decide produce more milk than those in which men (women) make all decisions.•Children of women who decide because they are most informed have more hemoglobin than those whose mothers make all decisions.