Consumption inequality and intra-household allocations

Jeremy Lise, Shannon Seitz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

128 Scopus citations

Abstract

The consumption literature uses adult equivalence scales to measure individual-level inequality. This practice imposes the assumption that there is no within-household inequality. In this paper, we show that ignoring consumption inequality within households produces misleading estimates of inequality along two dimensions. To illustrate this point, we use a collective model of household behaviour to estimate consumption inequality in the U.K. from 1968 to 2001. First, the use of adult equivalence scales underestimates the initial level of cross-sectional consumption inequality by 50%, as large differences in the earnings of husbands and wives translate into large differences in consumption allocations within households. Second, we estimate the rise in between-household inequality has been accompanied by an offsetting reduction in within-household inequality. Our findings also indicate that increases in marital sorting on wages and hours worked can simultaneously explain two-thirds of the decline in within-household inequality and between a quarter and one-half of the rise in between-household inequality for one and two adult households.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)328-355
Number of pages28
JournalReview of Economic Studies
Volume78
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2011

Keywords

  • Adult equivalence scales
  • Collective model
  • Consumption inequality
  • Marital sorting

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