The Impacts of the Presence of Disabled Members on Intra-household Allocation in Older Australian Households

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the consumption patterns of older Australian households. Our special focus is on the impact of the presence of disabled household members on households’ allocation of their consumption expenditure. The results reveal that for older Australian households, recreation, clothing, and other goods and services are luxury goods, while food and housing are found to be necessities. We find that families with disabled members have to spend more on necessities at the expense of more luxury goods, such as recreation.