An experimental study at room temperature of the rate of radiative rec
ombination in a range of p-type GaAs/Al0.33Ga0.67As quantum-well sampl
es using both transient photoluminescence (PL) and photoconductivity (
PC) techniques is reported. The PL measurements provided the small-sig
nal time constant and the PC measurements probed the nonlinear excitat
ion regime, providing quantitative evidence of excitonic involvement a
t hole densities less than about 3 x 10(11) cm-2. The intensity depend
ence of the PC gave the variation of effective mobility with excitatio
n density. This mobility variation was used to successfully relate the
PL and PC time constants. These time constants, corrected for photon
recycling, had the same values as bulk material over a volume-hole-den
sity range 8 x 10(16) to 3 x 10(18) cm-3, described by a recombination
coefficient B = 1.8 x 10(-10) cm3 s-1. A comparison with a theoretica
l model, which included excitonic effects, photon recycling, and reduc
ed electron-hole overlap in the well, highlighted the importance of th
e magnitude of the effective density-of-states mass in the valence sub
bands. Experimental evidence suggests that the latter is 0.32 m, which
is over twice the value of the heavy-hole mass at the band edge. For
degenerate excited populations the time constant, corrected for photon
recycling, was found to be 0.8 ns, which is in reasonable agreement w
ith the theoretical prediction of 0.7 ns.