This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Consumption Inequality and Intra-Household Allocations

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Jeremy Lise () (Department of Economics, Queen's University)
Shannon Seitz () (Department of Economics, Queen\'s University)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

The current literature on consumption inequality treats all adults within the household equally, making the implicit assumption that all consumption inequality is between, not within, households. However, increased marital sorting on earnings and the subsequent rise in the share of women's income in the household may have important implications for consumption inequality measured at the individual level. We use an extension of the collective framework of Chiappori to estimate a rule for assigning resources to individual household members. We then construct a measure of individual level inequality by looking at implied changes in intra-household allocations and explore the implications of our framework for the measurement of individual level, versus household level, consumption inequality. Our analysis, which is based on households comprising one or two adults, suggests that the conventional approach of ignoring intra-household allocations underestimates the level of cross-sectional consumption inequality by 30% and overstates the trend by two-thirds. Our findings also indicate that increases in marital sorting on wages and hours worked can simultaneously explain virtually all of the decline in within household inequality and a substantial fraction of the rise in between household inequality in the UK since the 1970s.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.econ.queensu.ca/working_papers/papers/qed_wp_1019.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function: First version 2004
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Queen's University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 1019.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML, plain text, BibTeX, RIS (EndNote), ReDIF
Length: 41 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:qed:wpaper:1019

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6
Phone: (613) 533-2250
Fax: (613) 533-6668
Email:
Web page: http://www.econ.queensu.ca/
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Mark Babcock).

Related research
Keywords: Collective Model Consumption Inequality Marital Sorting

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Shannon N. Seitz, 2002. "Accounting for Racial Differences in Marriage and Employment," Working Papers 1009, Queen's University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  2. Richard Blundell & Ian Preston, 1998. "Consumption Inequality And Income Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(2), pages 603-640, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Jay H. Hong & Jose-Victor Rios-Rull, 2004. "Life insurance and household consumption," Working Papers 04-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
  4. Martin Browning & Pierre-AndrŽe Chiappori & Arthur Lewbel, 2004. "Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 588, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 04 Sep 2006. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Haddad, Lawrence & Kanbur, Ravi, 1990. "How Serious Is the Neglect of Intra-Household Inequality?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(402), pages 866-81, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Vermeulen, Frederic, 2002. " Collective Household Models: Principles and Main Results," Journal of Economic Surveys, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 16(4), pages 533-64, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Barrett, Garry F & Crossley, Thomas F & Worswick, Christopher, 2000. "Consumption and Income Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 76(233), pages 116-38, June.
    Other versions:
  8. Browning, Martin & Francois Bourguignon & Pierre-Andre Chiappori & Valerie Lechene, 1994. "Income and Outcomes: A Structural Model of Intrahousehold Allocation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1067-96, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Pierre-Andre Chiappori & Bernard Fortin & Guy Lacroix, 2002. "Marriage Market, Divorce Legislation, and Household Labor Supply," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(1), pages 37-72, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Kanbur, Ravi & Haddad, Lawrence, 1994. "Are Better Off Households More Unequal or Less Unequal?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 445-58, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. M. Browning & P. A. Chiappori, 1998. "Efficient Intra-Household Allocations: A General Characterization and Empirical Tests," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(6), pages 1241-1278, November.
    Other versions:
  12. Kenneth Train, 2003. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Online economics textbooks, SUNY-Oswego, Department of Economics, number emetr2, September. [Downloadable!]
  13. Olivier Donni, 2001. "Collective Female Labor Supply: Theory and Application," Cahiers de recherche CREFE / CREFE Working Papers 141, CREFE, Université du Québec à Montréal. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Chamberlain, Gary, 1984. "Panel data," Handbook of Econometrics, in: Z. Griliches† & M. D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 22, pages 1247-1318 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Pierre-André Chiappori & Richard Blundell & Costas Meghir, 2002. "Collective labour supply with children," IFS Working Papers W02/08, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  16. Erich Battistin, 2002. "Errors in Survey Reports of Consumption Expenditures," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 C4-2, International Conferences on Panel Data. [Downloadable!]
  17. Dirk Krueger & Fabrizio Perri, 2002. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality? Evidence and Theory," NBER Working Papers 9202, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  18. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1984. "Inequality Decomposition by Population Subgroups," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1369-85, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Fernández, Raquel & Rogerson, Richard, 2000. "Sorting and Long-Run Inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 2352, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  20. Manser, Marilyn & Brown, Murray, 1980. "Marriage and Household Decision-Making: A Bargaining Analysis," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 21(1), pages 31-44, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Thomas F. Crossley & Krishna Pendakur, 2002. "Consumption Inequality," Department of Economics Working Papers 2002-09, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]
  22. Erich Battistin, 2003. "Errors in survey reports of consumption expenditures," IFS Working Papers W03/07, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
  23. Richard Blundell & Pierre-Andre Chiappori & Thierry Magnac & Costas Meghir, 2002. "Collective Labor Supply: Heterogeneity and Nonparticipation," Research Unit Working Papers 0210, Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquee, INRA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  24. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1988. "Rational Household Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(1), pages 63-90, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Orazio Attanasio & Erich Battistin & Hidehiko Ichimura, 2004. "What Really Happened to Consumption Inequality in the US?," NBER Working Papers 10338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Olivier Bargain, 2008. "Normative evaluation of tax policies: from households to individuals," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 339-371, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Rizwana Siddiqui, 2007. "Modelling Gender Dimensions of the Impact of Economic Reforms in Pakistan," Cahiers de recherche MPIA 2007-13, PEP-MPIA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Rob Alessie & Thomas F. Crossley & Vincent Hildebrand, 2006. "Estimating a Collective Household Model with Survey Data on Financial Satisfaction," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 161, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Olivier Donni, 2004. "Labor Supply, Home Production and Welfare Comparisons," Cahiers de recherche 0427, CIRPEE. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2008. "The Macroeconomic Implications of Rising Wage Inequality in the United States," NBER Working Papers 14052, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Jay H. Hong & Jose-Victor Rios-Rull, 2004. "Life insurance and household consumption," Working Papers 04-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
  7. HŽlne Couprie & Eugenio Peluso & Alain Trannoy, 2007. "From Household to Individual Welfare Comparisons: A Double Concavity Test," IDEP Working Papers 0701, Institut d'economie publique (IDEP), Marseille, France, revised 01 2007. [Downloadable!]
  8. John Pencavel, 2006. "Earnings Inequality and Market Work in Husband-Wife Families," IZA Discussion Papers 2235, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? There are NEP reports in over 80 fields that deliver new research to your email.

This page was last updated on 2008-10-1.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.