Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power

Martin Browning, Pierre Chiappori and Arthur Lewbel

No 588, Boston College Working Papers in Economics from Boston College Department of Economics

Abstract: How much income would a woman living alone require to attain the same standard of living that she would have if she were married? What percentage of a married couple's expenditures are controlled by the husband? How much money does a couple save on consumption goods by living together versus living apart? We propose and estimate a collective model of household behavior that permits identification and estimation of concepts such as these. We model households in terms of the utility functions of its members, a bargaining or social welfare function, and a consumption technology function. We demonstrate generic nonparametric identification of the model, and hence of a version of adult equivalence scales that we call "indifference scales," as well as consumption economies of scale, the household's resource sharing rule or members' bargaining power, and other related concepts.

Keywords: Consumer Demand; Collective Model; Adult Equivalence Scales; Household Bargaining; Economies of Scale; Demand Systems; Bargaining Power; Barten Scales. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C30 D11 D12 D63 I31 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-01-13, Revised 2010-09-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power (2013)
Working Paper: Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power (2006)
Working Paper: Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:boc:bocoec:588

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