The Influence of Household Composition on Household Expenditure Patterns: Theory and Spanish Evidence.

A concept of demographic separability is proposed that formalizes t he notion that there are groups of goods (adult goods) that have little or no relationship to specific classes of household demographics (the numbers or ages of children). That there exist adult goods demographically separable from children is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the validity of Erwin Rothbarth's method for measuring child costs. The authors propose two different methods for testing demographic separability and present results from a 1981 survey of Spain. The econometric evidence is in fair agreement with t he theoretical presuppositions. Copyright 1989 by University of Chicago Press.