Travail de recherche/Working paper
| Résumé : | We present a nonparametric 'revealed preference' methodology for empirically analyzing collective consumption behavior. First, we introduce an integer programming (IP) methodology for testing data consistency with alternative collective consumption models: the 'general' case in which any good can be publicly consumed as well as privately consumed, possibly with externalities; and 'special' cases that impose specific prior structure (e.g. the case with all goods publicly consumed, and the case with all goods privately consumed without externalities). In addition, we show that this IP methodology can include information on 'assignable quantities' for particular goods. Next, we demonstrate that the IP methodology allows for recovering the structural collective decision model (including the sharing rule) from the observed collective consumption behavior. In turn, this makes it possible to address welfare-related questions that are specific to the collective consumption model. |
