Welvaartseconomische aspecten van de collectieve benadering van het gedrag van gezinnen

The traditional approach to consumer behaviour assumes that households behave as if they consist of a single decision maker. This unitary approach has methodological, empirical and welfare economic deficiencies. A valuable alternative to the traditional model is the collective approach to household behaviour. This approach explicitly takes account of the fact that multiperson households consist of different individuals with own rational preferences. Among these household members, a bargaining process that results in Pareto-efficient outcomes is assumed to take place. In this paper, we focus on some welfare economic aspects of the collective approach. By means of a collective consumption model with public goods, we will try to illustrate the usefulness of the collective approach in providing answers on specific welfare economic questions.