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Three essays on applications of intrahousehold resource allocation models

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Date Issued:
2011
Abstract/Description:
This dissertation consists of three chapters on the topic of intrahousehold resource allocation models. The first chapter tests the unitary and general collective models of intrahousehold resource allocation for various household compositions. I find that, for the quasi-quadratic Engel curve specification, the overall results support the previous findings in the literature that the unitary model fails to explain how resources are allocated for all household types. However, when using the QUAIDS specification, the results can reject the unitary model only for smaller-sized households. The general collective model, on the other hand, cannot be rejected in either quasi-quadratic or QUAIDS and not in any of the household compositions. Overall, the results support the general collective model of household behavior rather than the unitary model.The second chapter derives and tests restrictions imposed by the collective model for households with more than two decision-makers in the absence of price variation. It extends the two-decision-maker model in chapter one to derive the testable restrictions for households with multiple decision makers using unconditional demand systems. Moreover, for comparison, a particular type of demand system that is conditional on distribution factors is also estimated as an alternative way to test the collective model. The results show that neither unconditional nor conditional demand systems can reject Pareto efficiency. Therefore, both approaches provide consistent outcomes supporting the hypothesis that the multiple-decision-maker households in Thailand behave in the Pareto efficient manner predicted by the collective model.Finally, my third chapter attempts to examine how one can exploit household-level consumption data to recover information about individual household members for situations with no price variation. By combining consumption data from single and couple households, I am able to estimate the resource shares and indifference scales (a variation of the standard equivalence scales in the collective settings) for each household member via a system of Engel curves. The results show that, in Thailand, wives are likely to have higher resource shares than husbands in the married-couple households, while wives with higher education have the ability to extract more household resources. However, resource shares for wives are smaller for older-married compared to younger-married couples. Moreover, if a female were to live alone, she would need approximately three-quarters of the couple's income to reach the same indifference curve, and hence the same standard of living, that she would attain as a wife in the married-couple household.
Title: Three essays on applications of intrahousehold resource allocation models.
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Name(s): Pamornpathomkul, Santikorn, Author
Dickie, Mark, Committee Chair
Gerking, Shelby, Committee Member
Scrogin, David, Committee Member
Rutstrom, Elisabet, Committee Member
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2011
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: This dissertation consists of three chapters on the topic of intrahousehold resource allocation models. The first chapter tests the unitary and general collective models of intrahousehold resource allocation for various household compositions. I find that, for the quasi-quadratic Engel curve specification, the overall results support the previous findings in the literature that the unitary model fails to explain how resources are allocated for all household types. However, when using the QUAIDS specification, the results can reject the unitary model only for smaller-sized households. The general collective model, on the other hand, cannot be rejected in either quasi-quadratic or QUAIDS and not in any of the household compositions. Overall, the results support the general collective model of household behavior rather than the unitary model.The second chapter derives and tests restrictions imposed by the collective model for households with more than two decision-makers in the absence of price variation. It extends the two-decision-maker model in chapter one to derive the testable restrictions for households with multiple decision makers using unconditional demand systems. Moreover, for comparison, a particular type of demand system that is conditional on distribution factors is also estimated as an alternative way to test the collective model. The results show that neither unconditional nor conditional demand systems can reject Pareto efficiency. Therefore, both approaches provide consistent outcomes supporting the hypothesis that the multiple-decision-maker households in Thailand behave in the Pareto efficient manner predicted by the collective model.Finally, my third chapter attempts to examine how one can exploit household-level consumption data to recover information about individual household members for situations with no price variation. By combining consumption data from single and couple households, I am able to estimate the resource shares and indifference scales (a variation of the standard equivalence scales in the collective settings) for each household member via a system of Engel curves. The results show that, in Thailand, wives are likely to have higher resource shares than husbands in the married-couple households, while wives with higher education have the ability to extract more household resources. However, resource shares for wives are smaller for older-married compared to younger-married couples. Moreover, if a female were to live alone, she would need approximately three-quarters of the couple's income to reach the same indifference curve, and hence the same standard of living, that she would attain as a wife in the married-couple household.
Identifier: CFE0004150 (IID), ucf:49057 (fedora)
Note(s): 2011-12-01
Ph.D.
Business Administration, Economics
Doctoral
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): Intrahousehold resource allocations -- multiple decision-maker households -- consumption inequality
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004150
Restrictions on Access: campus 2016-12-15
Host Institution: UCF

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