The Economies of Scale of Living Together and How They Are Shared: Estimates Based on a Collective Household Model

Aline Bütikofer and Michael Gerfin ()
Additional contact information
Michael Gerfin: University of Bern

No 4327, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: How large are the economies of scale of living together? And how do partners share their resources? The first question is usually answered by equivalence scales. Traditional estimation and application of equivalence scales assumes equal sharing of income within the household. This paper uses data on financial satisfaction to simultaneously estimate the sharing rule and the economy of scale parameter in a collective household model. The estimates indicate substantial scale economies of living together, especially for couples who have lived together for some time. On average, wives receive almost 50% of household resources, but there is heterogeneity with respect to the wives' contribution to household income and the duration of the relationship.

Keywords: equivalence scale; sharing rule; collective household models; subjective data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 D12 D19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2009-07
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp4327.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The economies of scale of living together and how they are shared: estimates based on a collective household model (2017)
Working Paper: The economies of scale of living together and how they are shared - Estimates based on a collective household model (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4327

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().