Household Economic Decision Making

Abstract

It seems so obvious and commonplace what the concepts "family" and "household" mean that they have frequently been employed loosely without formal definitions. However, the seemingly simple task to define these terms can become a rather complicated matter. The distinctions which seem to be most widely accepted contrast kinship and locality as the crucial characteristics which define membership in the family and household, respectively (Yanagisako, 1979). These features are also the core of the definition offered by the United Census Bureau (Nye and Berardo, 1973), that describes a family as "a group of two or more persons, related by blood, marriage, or adoption and residing together"; whereas a household consists of "all persons occupying a housing unit" (pp. 31 ff).