Incomes and outcomes : a structural model of intrahousehold allocation

Abstract

There is evidence that one cannot treat many-person households as a single decisionmaker. If so, then factors such as the relative incomes of the household members may affect the final allocation decisions made by the household. The authors develop a method of identifying how incomes affect outcomes given conventional family expenditure data. They assume that household decision processes lead to efficient outcomes. The authors apply their method to a sample of Canadian couples with no children. They find that the final allocations of expenditures on each partner depend significantly on their relative incomes and ages and on the level of lifetime wealth. Copyright 1994 by University of Chicago Press.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)