Unitary models, assuming a single objective function and unified budget constraint, are traditionally used to model household behavior. Most empirical tests of unitary models rely on endogenous regressors. This paper uses an exogenous change in the intrahousehold distribution of income, provided...

Unitary models, assuming a single objective function and unified budget constraint, are traditionally used to model household behavior. Most empirical tests of unitary models rely on endogenous regressors. This paper uses an exogenous change in the intrahousehold distribution of income, provided...

This paper uses an exogenous change in the intrahousehold distribution of income, provided by a change in United Kingdom Family Allowance policy to test the income-pooling hypothesis implied by unitary household models. Expenditure shares are estimated for a wide range of goods using...

Traditional economic models of savings treat the household as a single individual, and do not allow for the separate preferences of and possible conflicts of interest between husbands and wives. Since wives are typically younger than their husbands and life expectancy for women exceeds that for...

The income tax system in the United Kingdom moved from joint to independent taxation of husbands' and wives' income in 1990. One interesting aspect of independent taxation is the ability for households to choose the division of household assets between the two spouses. This tax reform therefore...