Estimating consumption economies of scale, adult equivalence scales, and household bargaining power

1 How much income would a woman living alone require to attain the same standard of living that she would have if she were married? What percentage of a married couple’s expenditures are controlled by the husband? How much money does a couple save on consump-tion goods by living together versus living apart? We propose and estimate a collective model of household behavior that permits iden-tification and estimation of concepts such as these. We model house-holds in terms of the utility functions of its members, a bargaining or social welfare function, and a consumption technology function. We demonstrate generic nonparametric identification of the model, and hence of equivalence scales, consumption economies of scale, house-hold members ’ bargaining power and other related concepts.