The Household Allocation Process

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that major changes in recent years in one of the primary institutions of society and the family have changed the theories of household economics. The author pointed out that one of the hypothesis is that women's power and status within the household are associated with their income-earning ability. The paper relates that many economists have developed bargaining models, which include the formation, function and dissolution of marriage, and family behavior by including information from evolutionary biology, anthropology, game theory, and economic research of family resource allocation and behavior.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Background of Study
Linking Household Economics with Anthropology and Biology
Hypotheses on Household Allocation Processes
Income Pooling
Family Expenditure Patterns and the Attachment Theory
Control over Income: Self-esteem, Power, and Decision-making
Interdependence of the Market and Household Economies
Economic Perspectives
Human Capital
Household and Family
Patterns of Money Management
Sociological Implications of Income Distribution
Social Perspectives
Extending Beyond Parents
Testing Economic Models
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"In summary, this study shows that fathers have the capacity for responsiveness and care-giving equivalent to that of mothers, but that in most cultures the mother is traditionally the primary caregiver. This pattern is slowly changing in Westernized societies. As of now, however, the mother remains the most responsive party to the child's needs, and therefore may be more likely than the father to spend money to meet those needs. This expenditure depends greatly on her access to resources, whether through decision-making power in the household or through control over her own source of funds. Who makes decisions about expenditures within the family, then, may have a significant impact on the use of resources for meeting the immediate needs of infants and young children."

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