Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/232687 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13935
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper considers the association between intra-household resource allocation and couple financial hardships in Australia. It develops and estimates a collective household model of expenditures on individual-specific necessities and hardship reporting where each partner has a distinct utility function and household decisions are assumed to be Pareto efficient. Using data from the 16th wave of the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey with unique questions on individual financial hardships, this paper addresses disadvantage brought about by financial hardships that may be shaped in part by the distributions of preferences and bargaining power within households. Wives report more hardships than husbands. Estimates indicate that wives have weaker preferences than husbands for expenditures on necessary goods for themselves, but there is no evidence of differences in bargaining power. Estimates further indicate that hardships increase with the number of children and each spouse's disability status and decrease with their ages and subjective financial capabilities.
Subjects: 
financial hardship
intra-household allocation
couples
Australia
JEL: 
D12
D13
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
366.02 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.