Time allocation within the family: welfare implications of life in a couple

Abstract

This paper analyzes the household decision-making process leading to the allocation of time and consumption in the family. We estimate, on the British Household Panel Survey, a collective model of demand for leisure generalized to the production of a household public good. For the first time in such a framework the sharing rule conditional on public expenditures is identified by woman's change of family status: from single-living to couple or from couple to single-living. Welfare implications are elaborated. Woman's share of household's private expenditures appears to be on average 45%.collective model, public good, domestic production, sharing rule identification