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Is power more evenly balanced in poor households?

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  • Couprie, Hélène
  • Peluso, Eugenio
  • Trannoy, Alain

Abstract

The structure of intra-household allocation is crucial to know whether a transfer from a rich household to a poor one translates into a transfer from a rich individual to a poor one. If rich households are more unequal than poor ones, then a progressive transfer among households reduces intra-household inequality, hence inequality among individuals. More specifically, two conditions have to be satisfied for extending Generalized Lorenz judgments from household level to individual one. The fraction of the couple's expenditures devoted to goods jointly consumed should decrease at the margin with the couple's income as well as the part of private expenditure devoted to the disadvantaged individual. This double concavity condition is non-parametrically tested on the French Household Expenditure Survey (2000). It is not rejected by the data and supports the view that power is more evenly distributed in poor households.

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  • Couprie, Hélène & Peluso, Eugenio & Trannoy, Alain, 2010. "Is power more evenly balanced in poor households?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(7-8), pages 493-507, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:94:y:2010:i:7-8:p:493-507
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    1. Sevias Guvuriro & Frederik Booysen, 2021. "Family‐type public goods and intra‐household decision‐making by co‐resident South African couples," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1629-1647, August.
    2. Cherchye, Laurens & Cosaert, Sam & De Rock, Bram & Kerstens, Pieter Jan & Vermeulen, Frederic, 2018. "Individual welfare analysis for collective households," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 98-114.
    3. Geoffrey R. Dunbar & Arthur Lewbel & Krishna Pendakur, 2021. "Identification of Random Resource Shares in Collective Households Without Preference Similarity Restrictions," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 402-421, March.
    4. Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2017. "Household Consumption When the Marriage Is Stable," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1507-1534, June.
    5. Udo Ebert, 2013. "The relationship between individual and household measures of WTP and WTA," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 40(2), pages 367-390, February.
    6. Olivier Bargain, 2017. "Welfare analysis and redistributive policies," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(4), pages 393-419, December.
    7. Couprie, Hélène & Peluso, Eugenio & Trannoy, Alain, 2010. "Is power more evenly balanced in poor households?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(7-8), pages 493-507, August.
    8. Sologon, Denisa Maria & Doorley, Karina & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Peluso, Eugenio, 2024. "The Gendered Nature of the Cost-of-Living Crisis in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 16820, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Zheng Fang, 2021. "A Unifying Framework for Testing Shape Restrictions," Papers 2107.12494, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2021.
    10. Lewbel, Arthur & Lin, Xirong, 2022. "Identification of semiparametric model coefficients, with an application to collective households," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 226(2), pages 205-223.
    11. Fleurbaey, Marc & Hagneré, Cyrille & Trannoy, Alain, 2014. "Welfare comparisons of income distributions and family size: An individualistic approach," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 12-27.
    12. Martina Menon & Elisa Pagani & Federico Perali, 2012. "A Characterization of Collective Individual Expenditure Functions," Working Papers 20/2012, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    13. Donni, Olivier & Molina, José Alberto, 2018. "Household Collective Models: Three Decades of Theoretical Contributions and Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 11915, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Arthur Lewbel & Krishna Pendakur, 2022. "Inefficient Collective Households: Cooperation and Consumption," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(645), pages 1882-1893.
    15. Frederik Booysen & Sevias Guvuriro, 2021. "Gender Differences in Intra-Household Financial Decision-Making: An Application of Coarsened Exact Matching," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-11, October.
    16. Olivier Bargain, 2022. "Income Sources, Intra-Household Allocation And Individual Poverty," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 121, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    17. Frederik Booysen & Sevias Guvuriro, 2018. "Family-type Public Goods and Intra-Household Decision-Making by Co-Resident South African Couples," Working Papers 735, Economic Research Southern Africa.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Lorenz comparisons Intra-household inequality Sharing functions Non-parametric concavity test;

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

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