This dissertation consists of three essays in family economics. The underlying objective of this dissertation is to better understand inequality in family formation and in intra-household allocation. The first two chapters study racial sorting in the United States marriage market. The third chapter studies the effects of higher female bargaining power on household consumption of married couples in the United States. Chapter 1 studies the unequal gains from racial desegregation in the United States marriage market. Interracial marriages have increased in the United States over the past several decades, but the trends differ across race, gender, and education groups. This suggests that racial desegregation in the marriage market may not have equally improved the marriage prospects of different groups. This paper studies why some groups have gained more from marital desegregation than others over the past four decades. To this end, I build a transferable utility matching model to define and estimate the welfare gains from marital desegregation by comparing the equilibrium rates of singlehood in the observed marriage market with those in a completely segregated marriage market. I find that among Blacks and Whites, college-educated men gained more than their female and lower-educated male counterparts. To understand why, I implement a decomposition method to quantify how changing population and changing marital surplus have shaped the unequal gains, accounting for general equilibrium effects. I find that the rise in the welfare gains for college-educated Black men is largely driven by the increase in the joint surplus from marriage with college-educated White women. Other Black men and women did not benefit as much from any change in the marital surplus, implying that race relations have not substantially improved in the marriage market except for the most educated Black men. I also find that the rise in welfare gains for college-educated White men is driven by the female-biased population increase among college graduates. Simulation results suggest that fixing the unbalance in marital surplus and making progress toward racial integration in the marriage market would significantly improve marriage outcomes for Black men and women. Chapter 2 examines the geographical variation in racial sorting in the United States marriage market. There are substantial variations in interracial marriage rates across states, but it is challenging to disentangle the role of marital surplus from the population composition. I use a structural marriage market model to document the geographical variation and time trends in the racial assortativeness in marital matching across the US states. I document several new facts. First, preference for same-race marriage compared to different-race marriage is the highest in the southern states and the lowest in the western states, even after controlling for the demographic composition. Second, the ranking of each state in terms of racial assortative matching has been persistent over the past four decades. Third, the geographic variation in racial assortative matching is closely related to the racial attitudes of White respondents, but not of Black respondents. This suggests that geographic variation in racial assortative matching may be driven more by White people's marital preferences than by Black people's marital preferences. In terms of individual welfare gains from interracial marriage, I find that higher-educated Black men living in the West benefit more from interracial marriage and those living in the South do not benefit at all from interracial marriage. This is consistent with the geographical patterns in racial assortative matching. On the other hand, Black women do not benefit at all from interracial marriage regardless of where they live. Chapter 3, which is joint work with So Yoon Ahn, studies how spousal bargaining power affects consumption patterns of married households in the US, using a detailed barcode-level dataset. While there has been substantial evidence from developing countries settings that bargaining power within the household affects household consumption, there is a lack of such evidence in more developed country settings like the US. To study this, we use two distribution factors as proxies for spousal bargaining power: spouses' relative education and spouses' relative potential wage, which is our preferred distribution factor. As an arguably exogenous measure of bargaining power, our relative potential wage is constructed as a Bartik-style measure of the female-to-male wage ratio, exploiting county-level variations in heterogeneous exposure to different industries and state-wide wage growth. We find that the expenditure shares on women's beauty goods increase and the expenditure shares on alcohol decrease significantly both when the relative education of wives increases and when the relative potential wages of wives increase. These results are consistent with household bargaining explanations. For couples with children, improved women's household bargaining position is associated with a higher budget share on books, stationery, and school supplies, which are potentially related to investment in children. Our evidence shows that local labor market condition that is favorable to women than men shifts household consumption towards more female-preferred goods among married couples in the US.

Yuk-fai Fong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-71). / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Review of Related Literature and Motivation of Research / Chapter 2.1 --- "Browning, Bourguignon, Chiappori and Lechene (1994)" --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Chiappori (1992) --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3 --- "Bourguignon, Browning, Chiappori and Lechene (1993)" --- p.10 / Chapter 2.4 --- Motivation of Research --- p.11 / Chapter 3. --- The Identification of non-assignable consumption / Chapter 3.1 --- Extension from Previous Results --- p.15 / Chapter 3.2 --- An Alternative Approach --- p.18 / Chapter 4. --- Identification in case of Incomplete Observation of Private Expenditure / Chapter 4.1 --- The BBCL Approach --- p.22 / Chapter 4.2 --- An Alternative Approach of Identification --- p.24 / Chapter 4.3 --- Inclusion of Exogenous variables in Sharing Rule: Structural vs. Reduced form --- p.30 / Chapter 4.4 --- Test for Omission of Some Items in the Total Private Expenditure --- p.35 / Chapter 4.5 --- Designation of Nature of Goods- A Remark --- p.36 / Chapter 5. --- Extension to Include Private Leisure as a Choice Variable of Individuals / Chapter 5.1 --- Difficulties in Identification of Sharing Rule of Total Private Expenditure in a Framework of Free Labor Choice --- p.38 / Chapter 5.2 --- Identification of Sharing Rule of Total Private Expenditure Without Observation of Private Leisure --- p.41 / Chapter 5.3 --- Identification of Sharing Rule in Structural Form with the Observation of Unearned Incomes --- p.46 / Chapter 6. --- Possibility of Identifying the Sharing Rule of Total Private Expenditure under Incomplete Observation of Consumption of Commodities --- p.49 / Chapter 6.1 --- Identification of ) --- p.50 / Chapter 7. --- Parametric Examples for Illustration / Chapter 7.1 --- Example I --- p.57 / Chapter 7.2 --- Example II --- p.61 / Chapter 8. --- Conclusion --- p.65 / Appendix --- p.67 / Reference --- p.69

曹美英. / 論文(哲學碩士) -- 香港中文大學硏究院社會學學部, 1996. / 參考文献 : leaves 64-72. / Cao Meiying. / Chapter 第一部 --- 分硏究背景與硏究方法 / Chapter 第一章 --- 導言 --- p.5 / Chapter 第二章 --- 改革開放前的社會制度考察 --- p.7 / Chapter 一、 --- 五十年代以來中國的所有制結構變遷 --- p.7 / Chapter 二、 --- 公有制結構下的勞動就業制度 --- p.7 / Chapter 三、 --- 公有制結構下的勞動工資制度 --- p.8 / Chapter 四、 --- 小結 --- p.10 / Chapter 第三章 --- 當代中國城市家庭槪況 --- p.11 / Chapter 一、 --- 單位制度下的中國城市家庭 --- p.11 / Chapter 二、 --- 中國城市家家庭結構掃描 --- p.12 / Chapter 1、 --- 核心家庭中國城市家庭的主要形 式 --- p.12 / Chapter 2、 --- 城市家庭的小型化 --- p.13 / Chapter 三、 --- 城市家庭關係的變化 --- p.13 / Chapter 四、 --- 小結 --- p.14 / Chapter 第四章、 --- 中國的三次“下海´ح潮及“下海´ح研究綜述 --- p.15 / Chapter 一、 --- 三次´ب下海´ح潮 --- p.15 / Chapter 二、 --- “下海´ح硏究綜述 --- p.16 / Chapter 第五章 --- 研究方法 --- p.17 / Chapter 一、 --- 訪問對象的選擇 --- p.17 / Chapter 二、 --- 訪問對象的基本特點 --- p.18 / Chapter 三、 --- 訪問過程 --- p.20 / Chapter 四、 --- 小結 --- p.21 / Chapter 第二部 --- 分硏究結果 / Chapter 第六章 --- “一家兩制´ح的形成原因 --- p.23 / Chapter 一、 --- “下海´ح：尋找新的機會 --- p.23 / Chapter 1、 --- 家庭經濟的困境 --- p.23 / Chapter 2、 --- 公有制體制的流弊 --- p.27 / Chapter 3、 --- 個人動機 --- p.29 / Chapter 二、 --- “留守´ح:把握既得利益 --- p.31 / Chapter 1、 --- 住房：對社會主義優越性的依戀 --- p.31 / Chapter 2、 --- “摸著石頭過河´ح-對政策穩定性的疑慮 --- p.33 / Chapter 3、 --- 個人和家庭因素 --- p.35 / Chapter 4、 --- 小結 --- p.36 / Chapter 第七章 --- 協商過程：走向“一家兩制´ح --- p.38 / Chapter 一、 --- “誰下海´ح ？ “誰留守´ح ？ --- p.38 / Chapter 二、 --- 協商對象 --- p.41 / Chapter (一)、 --- 配偶協商 --- p.41 / Chapter (二) 、 --- 父母協商 --- p.44 / Chapter (三)、 --- 親友協商 --- p.48 / Chapter 四、 --- 小結 --- p.49 / Chapter 第八章 --- “一家兩制´ح給家庭帶來的影響 --- p.50 / Chapter 一、 --- 家庭經濟狀況的改善 --- p.50 / Chapter 二、 --- 個人價値的實現 --- p.51 / Chapter 三、 --- 婦女的雙重角色 --- p.53 / Chapter 四、 --- 新的社會問題 --- p.56 / Chapter 五、 --- 小結 --- p.59 / Chapter 第九章 --- 結論北京市“一家兩制´ح家庭的特征及對社會的影響 --- p.60 / 參考書目 --- p.62

The first essay studies how early health shocks affect the child's human capital formation. We first formulate a theoretical model to understand how early health shocks affect child outcomes through parental responses. We nest a dynamic model of human capability formation into a standard intrahousehold resource allocation framework. By introducing the multidimensionality of child endowments, we allow parents to compensate and reinforce along different dimensions. We then test our main empirical predictions using a Chinese child twins survey, which contains detailed information on child- and parent-specific expenditures. We can differentiate between investments in money and investments in time. On the one hand, we find evidence of compensating investment in child health but of reinforcing investment in education. On the other hand, we find no change in the time spent with the child. We confirm that an early health insult negatively affects the child under several different domains, ranging from later health, to cognition, and then to personality. Our findings suggest caution in interpreting reduced-form estimates of the effects of early-life shocks. In the presence of asymmetric parental responses under different dimensions of the child's human capital, they cannot even be unambiguously interpreted as upper or lower bounds of the biological effects. / The second essay empirically estimates the effects of education on two dimensions of preference -- decision making under risk and uncertainty and decision making involving time. We conduct a number of incentivized choice experiments on Chinese adult twins to measure preference, and use a within-twin-pair fixed-effects estimator to sweep out unobservable family background effects. The estimation results show that a higher level of education tends to reduce the degree of risk aversion toward moderate prospects, moderate hazards, and longshot prospects. In terms of decision making anomalies under risk and uncertainty, university educated subjects exhibit significantly more Allais-type behavior compared to pre-high school subjects, while high school educated subjects also exhibit more ambiguity aversion as well as familiarity bias relative to pre-high school subjects. For decision making involving time, a higher level of education tends to reduce the degree of impatience, hyperbolic discounting, dread, and hopefulness. The experimental evidences suggest that people with a higher level of education tends to exhibit more "biased" preference in risk attitude and less "biased" preference regarding time. / This thesis consists of two essays on family behavior and human capital. / essay 1. Early health shocks, parental responses, and child outcome -- essay 2. Education and preferences: experimental evidences from Chinese adult twins. / Yi, Junjian. / Adviser: Junsen Zhang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-41; 82-88). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Given the growth of households headed by women, one of the biggest social concerns is the high poverty level within these households. Studies have shown that individuals living in female-headed households are more likely to be in poverty than those in other types of households due to women's disadvantaged position in the labor market. However, the disadvantage of women in the labor market does not necessarily lead to poverty within households headed by women. The livelihood of female-headed households is determined by contextual factors as well as the labor market condition, because the labor market, family and welfare policies all contribute to family well-being within a particular national context. Using both quantitative and qualitative method, I examine various components that are associated with social and family life of Mexican female heads and single mothers: living arrangements, household practices, the labor market, and welfare policy. Interview data with Mexican single mothers provide this research with basic research questions as well as evidences supporting the findings of quantitative analyses about the association between poverty and those women. Quantitative data analyses show that kinship network is important resources of welfare of female-headed or single-mother households in Mexico. First, the prevalence of female-headed households in Mexico is associated with gender-specific migration, increased economic opportunities for women, and marriage-market conditions. Second, Mexican female heads have household income relatively higher than or equivalent to that of male heads, and this peculiarity is attributed to the financial support to female-headed households provided by family networks, and to the selection process of single mothers. Third, extended family members residing with mothers affect their time allocation, and the effects vary by the gender of the extended family member and the mothers' marital status. / text

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Sin Lai-ting. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-156). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract in English --- p.i / Abstract in Chinese --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.v / List of Tables and Graphs --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1： --- lntroduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Literature Review and Application --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1) --- The Theory of Marriage and Family Formation --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2) --- The Theory of the Allocation of Time Between Family Members in Housework and Market Work --- p.6 / Chapter 2.3) --- Application of Becker's Theoretical Models to Different Variables --- p.12 / Chapter 2.4) --- Empirical Review on the Division of Labor between Husbands and Wives --- p.24 / Chapter 2.5) --- Decomposition of the wage differential of men and women --- p.31 / Chapter 2.6) --- Summary --- p.33 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Methodology --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1) --- Changes in the Relative Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives to Their Families --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2) --- Stable and Unstable Mating --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3) --- Reasons for the Changes in Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives --- p.43 / Chapter 3.4) --- Decomposition of the Economic Contribution Differential --- p.46 / Chapter 3.5) --- Definitions of Control Variables --- p.48 / Chapter 3.6) --- Summary --- p.52 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Data and Sample Description --- p.53 / Chapter 4.1) --- Data and Sample Extraction --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2) --- Variable Characteristics --- p.55 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- A First Look at the Changes in Relative Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives --- p.58 / Chapter 5.1) --- Simple Data Analyses --- p.58 / Chapter 5.2) --- Pooled Regressions with Husband Dummy --- p.64 / Chapter 5.3) --- Summary --- p.70 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- An Analysis of Selected Characteristics between Husbands and Wives --- p.72 / Chapter 6.1 ) --- 2x2 Canonical Correlation Analyses --- p.72 / Chapter 6.2) --- 3x3 Canonical Correlation Analyses --- p.75 / Chapter 6.3) --- Summary --- p.78 / Chapter Chapter 7: --- Reasons for the Changes in Relative Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives to Their Families --- p.79 / Chapter 7.1) --- Determinants of the Changes in Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives to their families --- p.79 / Chapter 7.2) --- Decomposition of the Economic Contribution Differential of Husbands and Wives to their Families --- p.90 / Chapter 7.3) --- Summary --- p.93 / Chapter Chapter 8: --- Conclusion --- p.94 / Tables --- p.98 / Graphs --- p.129 / Flow Chart --- p.136 / Appendix --- p.137 / References --- p.153

The problem for this study consists of determining what a wife should know about family finances in order to share the burden of family living with her husband and for protection against the probability she may be left with all the responsibilities and decisions.

This study was designed to compare the financial situation of both remarried and first-married families from a large randomly selected sample. An adaptation of Campbell, Converse, and Rogers' "Model of Life Satisfaction" was used as the theoretical basis for this investigation. Data were compared to assess differences in (a) personal characteristics; (b) objective attributes, the personal resources of homeowners hip, income, education, employment status, and occupation; (c) perceived attributes, financial attitudes and management behaviors of respondents; (d) evaluated attributes, an assessment of financial situation; and (e) satisfaction level with financial situation. The respondents were a sub-set from pre-collected data sets entitled Financial Attitudes and Practices of Virginia Citizens, Form A and Form B, (N=1098). Responses to items identical in both survey forms were merged to create a new data base which was used in this study. A sample of 173 remarried and 173 first-married respondents was used. Descriptive statistics were used to profile the two respondent groups. Independent t test and chi-square analyses were used to compare responses by marital status. Remarried and first-married respondents were similar in personal characteristics except in ethnicity and gender role philosophy with the remarrieds having a more egalitarian than traditional philosophy. The two groups were similar in objective attributes except in educational attainment. The remarried spouses were not as well educated as their counterparts. Financial management behavior and attitudes were similar for both groups except in the area of risk management and capital accumulation. Both groups reported a positive net worth and adequate income, however, remarrieds were less satisfied with their financial situation than first-marrieds. The results of this study demonstrated differences in the financial domain of remarried and first-married households and pointed to areas of concern for educators and family life specialists. / Master of Science

An exploratory field study was conducted to examine internal and external factors that influence adolescents' consumer behavior when serving as the family purchasing agents. Demographic, lifestyle, and marketing activities were examined to determine the influences that affect whether the adolescent will purchase the preferred family brands or other brands. Participating adolescents were sent by their parents to the grocery store on two separate occasions to purchase four preselected grocery items. The brands purchased were recorded and compared to the preferred brand names provided by the parents. While no statistical significance was found, occasional trends were observed. The analysis indicated that adolescents who experience a pluralistic family communication style will purchase products other than the preferred household brands. Adolescents who are exposed to television and radio tend to deviate more from the preferred family brands more often than do adolescents with less media exposure. Adolescents who work are more likely to go to the grocery store more often for their families than do nonworking adolescents. Also, adolescents seem to possess a price sensitivity to both high and low-involvement grocery items.