Intrahousehold Resource Allocation and Child Food Poverty in the United States

Abstract

Intrahousehold inequality, characterized by an uneven distribution of resources and bargaining power, can lead to disparities in access to food among household members. Utilizing the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) within a collective household framework, this study empirically estimates intrahousehold resource allocation in the U.S., with a specific emphasis on the resource shares allocated to children. Based on our findings, we introduce an individual-based metric for food poverty that highlights the affordability of a healthy meal in multi-child households, offering an alternative to the currently used survey-based measure. We show that the resource shares for children decrease significantly as the number of children in a household increases. Using this individual-based metric alongside USDA food plans as a reference, we find that nearly half of the food-poor children reside in households with incomes that exceed the eligibility thresholds for food assistance programs. These findings suggest the need to develop support strategies that consider a broader spectrum of household attributes.