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The sectoral labor supply of married couples in Brazil: Testing the unitary model of household behavior

Author

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  • Jill Tiefenthaler

    (Department of Economics, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346, USA)

Abstract

An assumption of the unitary model of household decision-making is that household members maximize one household utility function. This assumption implies that households pool their income and, therefore, the ownership of nonwage income has no effect on household demand. In this paper, this implication is tested by estimating multi-sector labor supply equations for men and women in Brazil. The results indicate that the unitary model is rejected in the informal and self-employment sectors for men and the formal and informal sectors for women; in these cases own nonwage income has a significantly negative effect on labor supply while spousal nonwage income has no significant effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Jill Tiefenthaler, 1999. "The sectoral labor supply of married couples in Brazil: Testing the unitary model of household behavior," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 12(4), pages 591-606.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:12:y:1999:i:4:p:591-606
    Note: Received: 29 December 1997/Accepted: 9 December 1998
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Campaña, Juan Carlos & Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto, 2018. "Efficient Labor Supply for Latin Families: Is the Intra-Household Bargaining Power Relevant?," IZA Discussion Papers 11695, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Jaslin K Kalsi & Siobhan Austen & Astghik Mavisakalyan, 2022. "Employment and the distribution of intra-household financial satisfaction," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 329-350, June.
    3. Grossbard, Shoshana, 2010. "Independent Individual Decision-Makers in Household Models and the New Home Economics," IZA Discussion Papers 5138, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Agénor, Pierre-Richard & Canuto, Otaviano, 2015. "Gender equality and economic growth in Brazil: A long-run analysis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 155-172.
    5. Sven Stöwhase, 2011. "Non-minimization of source taxes on labor income: empirical evidence from Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 293-306, June.
    6. Patrick M. Emerson & Andre Portela Souza, 2002. "Bargaining over Sons and Daughters: Child Labor, School Attendance and Intra-Household Gender Bias in Brazil," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0213, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    7. Nazia Mansoor, 2011. "Marriage payments and bargaining power of women in rural Bangladesh," Studies in Economics 1119, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    8. Marie W. Arneberg & John K. Dagsvik & Zhiyang Jia, 2002. "Labor Market Modeling Recognizing Latent Job Attributes and Opportunity Constraints An Empirical Analysis of Labor Market Behavior of Eritrean Women," Discussion Papers 331, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    9. 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).
    10. Sariyev, O., 2018. "A new index for gendered decision-making, considering all family members, its determinants, and effects on food security," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277479, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Ryoko Morozumi, 2012. "A test of a unitary model on labour supply using the information of household decision-making systems," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(33), pages 4291-4300, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Brazil · labor supply · household bargaining;

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor

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