Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Botha, Ferdi
• Ribar, David C.

Titel

For worse? Financial hardships and intra-household resource allocation among Australian couples

Ist Teil von

• Economic modelling, 2023-02, Vol.119, p.106114, Article 106114

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This article investigates differences in husbands' and wives' experiences of financial hardships. It develops and estimates a structural collective household model of expenditures on individual-specific necessities and hardship reporting where each partner has distinct preferences and the household makes Pareto efficient decisions. Using data from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey with unique questions on individual financial hardships, we examine whether differences in preferences, bargaining power, or other characteristics within households affect the distribution of hardships. Wives in our data report more financial hardships than husbands. Estimates from our structural model 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 spouses' disability status and decrease with spouses’ ages and subjective financial capabilities. •We study intra-household resource allocation and couple's financial hardships.•We develop and estimate a structural collective household model of hardships.•Wives report more financial hardships than husbands.•We find no evidence that differences in bargaining power affect hardships.•Wives have weaker preferences for necessary goods for themselves than husbands.