Collective Labor Supply: a Single-Equation Model and Some Evidence from French Data

Abstract

In Chiappori's (1988) collective model of labour supply hours of work are supposed flexible. In many countries, however, male labor supply does not vary much. In that case, the husband's labor supply is no longer informative about the household decision process and individual preferences. To identify structural components of the model, additional information is needed. We thus consider an approach in which the wife's labor supply is expressed as a function of the household demand for one specific good. We demonstrate that the main properties of Chiappori's initial model are preserved and apply our results on French data.