This paper provides a theoretical framework for analyzing the impact of the marriage market and divorce legislation on household labor supply. In our approach, the sex ratio in the marriage market and the rules governing divorce are examples of "distribution factors." These factors are defined...

In this paper we estimate a model of household labor supply based on the collective approach developed by Chiappori (JPE, 1992). This approach assumes that the intra-household decision process leads to Pareto efficient outcomes. Our model extends this theory by allowing the marriage market, and...

In this paper we analyze the impact of benefits on the length of welfare spells. It introduces a "natural experiment" approach of comparing the length of welfare spells before and after a major reform of the welfare program that took place in the Province of Quebec in August 1989. An important...

Children are seldom accounted for in household behavioural models. They are usually assumed to have neither the capacity nor the power to influence the household decision process. The literature on collective models has so far incorporated children through the "caring preferences" of their...