Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Commitment in intertemporal household consumption: a revealed preference analysis

Contents:

Author Info

  • Jeroen Sabbe

    (K.U.Leuven Kulak)

  • Ewout Verriest

    (K.U.Leuven Kulak)

  • Bram De Rock

    (Université Libre de Bruxelles, K.U.Leuven Kulak)

  • Laurens Cherchye

    (K.U.Leuven Kulak, Universiteit van Tilburg)

Abstract

We present a revealed preference methodology for analyzing intertemporal household consumption behavior. In doing so, we follow a collective approach, which explicitly recognizes that multi-member households consist of multiple decision makers with their own rational preferences. Following original work of Mazzocco (2007), we develop tests that can empirically verify whether observed consumption behavior is consistent with (varying degrees of) intrahousehold commitment. In our set-up, commitment means that households choose consumption allocations on the ex ante Pareto frontier. The distinguishing feature of our tests is that they are entirely nonparametric, i.e. their implementation does not require an a priori (typically non-veri fiable) specifi cation of the intrahousehold decision process (e.g. individual utilities). We demonstrate the practical usefulness of our methodology by means of an empirical application. For the data at hand, our results suggest using a so-called limited commitment model that allows for household-specifi c commitment patterns. Importantly, our application also shows that bringing intertemporal dynamics in the empirical analysis can substantially increase the discriminatory power of the revealed preference methodology.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.economicdynamics.org/meetpapers/2011/paper_251.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Society for Economic Dynamics in its series 2011 Meeting Papers with number 251.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:red:sed011:251

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Society for Economic Dynamics Christian Zimmermann Economic Research Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PO Box 442 St. Louis MO 63166-0442 USA
Fax: 1-860-486-4463
Email:
Web page: http://www.EconomicDynamics.org/society.htm
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

References

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.:
as in new window
  1. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1992. "Collective Labor Supply and Welfare," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(3), pages 437-67, June.
  2. Apps, Patricia F. & Rees, Ray, 1988. "Taxation and the household," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 355-369, April.
  3. Richard Blundell & Martin Browning & Ian Crawford, 2005. "Best nonparametric bounds on demand responses," IFS Working Papers W05/20, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  4. Hall, Robert E, 1978. "Stochastic Implications of the Life Cycle-Permanent Income Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(6), pages 971-87, December.
  5. Varian, Hal R, 1982. "The Nonparametric Approach to Demand Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 945-73, July.
  6. Browning, Martin, 1989. "A Nonparametric Test of the Life-Cycle Rational Expectations Hypothesis," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(4), pages 979-92, November.
  7. Cherchye, Laurens & De Rock, Bram & Vermeulen, Frederic, 2009. "Opening the black box of intra-household decision-making: theory and non-parametric empirical tests of general collective consumption models," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/249163, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
  8. Martin Browning & Pierre-Andre Chiappori, 1994. "Efficient Intra-Household Allocations: a General Characterization and Empirical Tests," Department of Economics Working Papers 1994-02, McMaster University.
  9. Cherchye, L.J.H. & Rock, B. de & Vermeulen, F.M.P., 2010. "Married with Children: A Collective Labor Supply Model with Detailed Time Use and Intrahousehold Expenditure Information," Discussion Paper 2010-99, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
  10. Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock, 2011. "Revealed Preference Analysis of Non‐Cooperative Household Consumption," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(555), pages 1073-1096, 09.
  11. Martin Browning & Thomas F. Crossley, 2000. "The Life Cycle Model of Consumption and Saving," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 28, McMaster University.
  12. Guy Lacroix & Natalia Radtchenko, 2011. "The changing intra-household resource allocation in Russia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 85-106, January.
  13. Rees, Ray, 1988. "Taxation and the Household," Munich Reprints in Economics 3411, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
  14. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2007. "The Collective Model of Household Consumption: A Nonparametric Characterization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(2), pages 553-574, 03.
  15. Richard W. Blundell & Martin Browning & Ian A. Crawford, 2003. "Nonparametric Engel Curves and Revealed Preference," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(1), pages 205-240, January.
  16. Cherchye, Laurens & Vermeulen, Frederic, 2006. "Nonparametric analysis of household labour supply: Goodness-of-fit and power of the unitary and the collective model," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/120923, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
  17. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Jeroen Sabbe & Frederic Vemeulen, 2008. "Nonparametric tests of collectively rational consumption behavior: an integer programming procedure," Center for Economic Studies - Discussion papers ces0801, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centrum voor Economische Studiën.
  18. Thomas, D., 1989. "Intra-Household Resource Allocation: An Inferential Approach," Papers 586, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
  19. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1988. "Rational Household Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(1), pages 63-90, January.
  20. Timothy K. M. Beatty & Ian A. Crawford, 2011. "How Demanding Is the Revealed Preference Approach to Demand?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2782-95, October.
  21. Bewley, Truman, 1977. "The permanent income hypothesis: A theoretical formulation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 252-292, December.
  22. Maurizio Mazzocco, 2007. "Household Intertemporal Behaviour: A Collective Characterization and a Test of Commitment," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 857-895, 07.
  23. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2011. "The revealed preference approach to collective consumption behavior: nonparametric testing and sharing rule recovery," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/98560, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  24. Ian Crawford, 2010. "Habits Revealed," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(4), pages 1382-1402, October.
  25. Diewert, W E, 1973. "Afriat and Revealed Preference Theory," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 419-25, July.
  26. Lundberg, Shelly J, 1988. "Labor Supply of Husbands and Wives: A Simultaneous Equations Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(2), pages 224-35, May.
  27. Chiappori, P.A. & Ekeland, I., 2006. "The micro economics of group behavior: General characterization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 1-26, September.
  28. Fortin, Bernard & Lacroix, Guy, 1997. "A Test of the Unitary and Collective Models of Household Labour Supply," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(443), pages 933-55, July.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Thomas DEMUYNCK & Ewout VERRIEST, 2011. "A revealed preference analysis of the rational addiction model," Center for Economic Studies - Discussion papers ces11.12, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centrum voor Economische Studiën.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:red:sed011:251

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Christian Zimmermann).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.