Intra-household Manageable Income and the Choice on Self or Other Expenditures

Abstract

This paper focuses on the expenditures of heterosexual couples using the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers. A family’s income transfer information can help identify the division of resources. The results were calculated using Engle curves, and showed that an increase in resources led to an increase in both private expenditures and expenditures on others. In addition, they often spent different resources on themselves and others when they had different levels of income. On average, wives had fewer private expenditures than husbands. Moreover, husbands spent more on private expenditures when had fewer available resources and less when they had more resources.