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American Economic Review: Vol. 103 No. 1 (February 2013)

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Children's Resources in Collective Households: Identification, Estimation, and an Application to Child Poverty in Malawi

Article Citation

Dunbar, Geoffrey R., Arthur Lewbel, and Krishna Pendakur. 2013. "Children's Resources in Collective Households: Identification, Estimation, and an Application to Child Poverty in Malawi." American Economic Review, 103(1): 438-71.

DOI: 10.1257/aer.103.1.438

Abstract

The share of household resources devoted to children is hard to identify because consumption is measured at the household level and goods can be shared. Using semiparametric restrictions on individual preferences within a collective model, we identify how total household resources are divided up among household members by observing how each family member's expenditures on a single private good like clothing vary with income and family size. Using data from Malawi we show how resources devoted to wives and children vary by family size and structure, and we find that standard poverty indices understate the incidence of child poverty. (JEL I31, I32, J12, J13, O12, O15)

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Authors

Dunbar, Geoffrey R. (Simon Fraser U)
Lewbel, Arthur (Boston College)
Pendakur, Krishna (Simon Fraser U)

JEL Classifications

I31: General Welfare
I32: Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
J12: Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
J13: Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
O12: Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O15: Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration


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