Stable marriage, household consumption and unobserved match quality

Arbeitspapier

We present a methodology for the structural empirical analysis of household consumption and time use behaviour under marital stability. Our approach is of the revealed preference type and non-parametric, meaning that it does not require a prior functional specification of individual utilities. Without making use of the transferable utility assumption, but still allowing for monetary transfers, our method can identify individuals' unobserved match qualities and quantify them in money metric terms. We can include both preference factors, affecting individuals' preferences over private and public goods, and match quality factors, driving differences in unobserved match quality. We demonstrate the practical usefulness of our methodology through an application to the Belgian MEqIn data. Our results reveal intuitive patterns of unobserved match quality that allow us to rationalise both the observed matches and the within-household allocations of time and money.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IFS Working Paper ; No. W21/31

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General ; Consumer Economics: Theory ; Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
• Subject: household consumption ; marital stability ; unobserved matchquality ; revealed preference analysis ; intrahousehold allocation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Browning, Martin James ; Cherchye, Laurens ; Demuynck, Thomas ; De Rock, Bram ; Vermeulen, Frederic
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
• (where): London
• (when): 2021

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1920/wp.ifs.2021.3121
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/249686
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET