Incentives and Nutrition for Rotten Kids: Intrahousehold Food Allocation in the Philippines
29 Pages Posted: 28 Feb 2011
Date Written: December 2, 2005
Abstract
Using data on individual consumption expenditures from a sample of farm households in the Philippines, we construct a direct test of the risk-sharing implications of the collective house-hold model. We are able to contrast the efficient outcomes predicted by the collective household model with the outcomes we might expect in environments in which food consumption delivers not only utils, but also nutrients which affect future productivity. Finally, we are able to contrast each of these two models with a third, involving a hidden action problem within the household; in this case, the efficient provision of incentives implies that the consumption of each household member depends on their (stochastic) productivity.
The efficiency conditions which characterize the within-household allocation of food under the collective household model are violated, as consumption shares respond to earnings shocks. If future productivity depends on current nutrition, then this can explain some but not all of the response, as it appears that the quality of current consumption depends on past earnings. This suggests that some actions taken by household members are private, giving rise to a moral hazard problem within the household.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Here is the Coronavirus
related research on SSRN
Recommended Papers
-
The Economic Lives of the Poor
By Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
-
The Economic Lives of the Poor
By Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
-
Returns to Capital in Microenterprises: Evidence from a Field Experiment
By Suresh De Mel, David J. Mckenzie, ...
-
Returns to Capital in Microenterprises: Evidence from a Field Experiment
By Suresh De Mel, David J. Mckenzie, ...
-
Entitled to Work: Urban Property Rights and Labor Supply in Peru
By Erica Field
-
Savings Constraints and Microenterprise Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Kenya
By Pascaline Dupas and Jonathan Robinson
-
Measuring Microenterprise Profits: Don't Ask How the Sausage is Made
By Suresh De Mel, David J. Mckenzie, ...
-
The Return to Capital in Ghana
By Christopher Udry and Santosh Anagol
-
The Shape of Temptation: Implications for the Economic Lives of the Poor
-
The Shape of Temptation: Implications for the Economic Lives of the Poor
