Is power more evenly balanced in poor households?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Couprie, Helene; Peluso, Eugenio; Trannoy, Alain
• 署名单位: CY Cergy Paris Universite; University of Verona; Aix-Marseille Universite
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.02.003
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 493-507
• 关键词: Lorenz comparisons; Intra-household inequality; Sharing functions; Non-parametric concavity test

摘要

The structure of intra-household allocation is crucial to know whether a transfer from a rich household to a poor one translates into a transfer from a rich individual to a poor one. If rich households are more unequal than poor ones, then a progressive transfer among households reduces intra-household inequality, hence inequality among individuals. More specifically, two conditions have to be satisfied for extending Generalized Lorenz judgments from household level to individual one. The fraction of the couple's expenditures devoted to goods jointly consumed should decrease at the margin with the couple's income as well as the part of private expenditure devoted to the disadvantaged individual. This double concavity condition is non-parametrically tested on the French Household Expenditure Survey (2000). It is not rejected by the data and supports the view that power is more evenly distributed in poor households. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.