Revisiting the cost of children: theory and evidence from Ireland

Olivier Bargain and Olivier Donni

Open Access publications from School of Economics, University College Dublin

Abstract: In this paper, we suggest a collective model with parents and (young) children. We identify and estimate scale economies in households and the sharing rule between husband, wife and children. While adult shares and economies of scale are identi?ed thanks to the estimation of individual Engel curves on single individuals, the identi?cation of the resource share accruing to children (the cost of children) requires the observation of adult-speci?c goods as in the traditional Rothbarth method. The useful aspect of the present approach is that it requires only the estimation of Engel curves on cross-sectional data, i.e. price variation is not required. This is an advan- tage for many countries where price variations is indeed limited, as in our application on Irish data.

Keywords: Consumer demand; Collective model; Sharing rule; Cost of children; Equivalence scales; Indifference scales; Home economics--Accounting; Child rearing--Economic aspects--Ireland; Consumption (Economics) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C30 D11 D12 I31 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published: Twenty-third Annual Conference of the Irish Economic Association, Blarney, Co. Cork, 24-26 April 20092009-01-13

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/2014

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