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Husbands, Wives and the Peculiar Economics of Household Public Goods

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  • Amanda J Felkey

    (Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, USA)

Abstract

Understanding how household income is allocated among different types of expenditures is of the utmost importance when considering policy targeted at increasing household well-being. This analysis uses the collective household model to determine how household public goods and household public bads are chosen in light of the relative power balance between husband and wife. This article shows both theoretically and empirically that the effect of additional female power on household outcomes depends on the initial level of female power. Moreover, contrary to previous findings, it need not always be positive. The policy implications of this non-monotonic relationship between female decision-making power and household well-being outcomes are important. The effectiveness of aid to households depends not only on current expenditure levels but also on household balance of power. More specifically, there may be situations where enhancing female power (more controversially, and the article shows this theoretically and empirically) may not be good for household well-being.Comprendre comment les revenus des ménages sont répartis en différentes catégories de dépenses est essentiel dès lors que l’on envisage une politique destinée à améliorer le bien-être des ménages. Cette analyse utilise le modèle collectif de comportement des ménages afin de déterminer comment s’effectuent les arbitrages entre les biens publics et les maux publics des ménages compte tenu de l’équilibre relatif des pouvoirs entre conjoints. Nous montrons théoriquement et empiriquement que l’effet du gain de pouvoir des femmes sur les résultats des ménages dépend de leur niveau de pouvoir initial. Et, contrairement à ce qu’ont montré des études précédentes, il n’est pas toujours nécessaire que cet effet soit positif. Les implications en matière de politiques de cette relation non monotone entre le pouvoir décisionnel des femmes et les résultats par rapport au bien-être des ménages sont importantes. L’efficacité de l’aide aux ménages dépend non seulement des niveaux de dépenses actuels, mais aussi de l’équilibre des pouvoirs dans les ménages. Plus précisément, il y a des situations où l’augmentation du pouvoir des femmes peut ne pas être bonne pour le bien-être des ménages (ce qui est matière à controverse, mais l’article le montre théoriquement et empiriquement).

Suggested Citation

  • Amanda J Felkey, 2013. "Husbands, Wives and the Peculiar Economics of Household Public Goods," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 25(3), pages 445-465, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:25:y:2013:i:3:p:445-465
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Frederik Booysen & Sevias Guvuriro, 2021. "Gender Differences in Intra-Household Financial Decision-Making: An Application of Coarsened Exact Matching," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Fernandez, Antonia & Della Giusta, Marina & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2015. "The Intrinsic Value of Agency: The Case of Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 92-107.
    3. Fernandez, Antonia & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2017. "Shared agency: The dominant spouse’s impact on education expenditure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 182-197.
    4. Roy Chowdhury, Soumi & Bohara, Alok K. & Horn, Brady P., 2018. "Balance of Power, Domestic Violence, and Health Injuries: Evidence from Demographic and Health Survey of Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 18-29.
    5. Vidya Atal, 2017. "Say at home, or stay at home? Policy implications on female labor supply and empowerment," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1081-1103, December.

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