Journal Article

Sharing of resources within the family and the economics of household decision making

Authors

Publication date

Jun 2013

Summary

Over the last 3 decades, economic models have been developed that recognize that potentially conflicting interests may shape household decisions and the sharing of resources within families. This article provides an overview of how decision making within households has been modeled within economics, presents the main benefits and limitations of those models, and critically assesses their usefulness to researchers from other disciplines interested in the within- household distribution of resources. The main focus is on the theory, empirical application, and results of the currently dominant collective models, but the authors also look at developments that led up to them and some subsequent extensions and alternative approaches. Given the weight placed by policymakers and others on economic and quantitative evidence, it is incumbent on researchers of all disciplines to understand the achievements and limitations of the models used, explicitly or implicitly, to produce such evidence and the assumptions that lie behind them.

Published in

Journal of Marriage and Family

Volume and page numbers

75 , 625 -639

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12032

ISSN

16

Subjects

Economics, Research, and Household Economics

Links

http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1585092~S5

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

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