ARE INTRA-HOUSEHOLD ALLOCATIONS EFFICIENT?

This paper describes two problems when testing the efficiency of intra-household allocations. First, using Monte Carlo simulations I show that the test proposed for efficiency in consumption has a high type-II error, leading to a false acceptance of the hypothesis. Second, I show it is possible that even under asymmetric information the hypothesis of efficiency, incorrectly, cannot be rejected. Finally, I propose a test to account for asymmetric of information.