Intrahousehold Commitment and Intertemporal Labor Supply

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies household labor supply, within the context of an intertemporal collective model, and three prominent intrahousehold commitment regimes: full commitment, no commitment, and limited commitment. We propose a test that distinguishes among all three alternatives based on how contemporary and historical changes to the economic environment affect household behavior. We implement the test on recent data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics in the US (1999-2017). Although couples and singles behave similarly in many aspects, couples' labor supply exhibits distinctive features that are consistent with limited commitment. We then use our results to highlight several issues and caveats that arise when testing for commitment.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 13545

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply
• Subject: intertemporal collective model ; household labor supply ; commitment ; PSID

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Chiappori, Pierre-André ; Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio ; Molina, José Alberto ; Theloudis, Alexandros ; Velilla, Jorge
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/223987
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET