Preference heterogeneity, power, and intrahousehold decision-making in rural Malaysia

This paper examines conjugal household responsibilities/roles, preference heterogeneity and intrahousehold power relations in rural Malay families. Its three major contributions are to: provide an effective initial indicator of separate spheres within the family; develop and implement a method for measuring the extent of conjugal preference heterogeneity; and, illustrate the value of combining this direct measure of preference heterogeneity with a measure of power in estimating household expenditure patterns for three major items, food, schooling, and housing improvement. These three measurement innovations applied to the rural Malaysia context demonstrate the potential for more direct efforts to model and measure intrahousehold decisions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.