Elderly Relative Power and Household Expenditure Patterns: Evidence from Senegal

Ousmane Faye, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

This paper uses Basu's extension of the collective model to identify what determine the relative power of the elderly within Senegalese households and to recover the impact of such a power on household's decisions of expenditures. Elderly power is measured using the old people’s share in household total earnings. We use a 3SLS estimation procedure to estimate the elderly power endogenously and simultaneously with household budget shares. Estimates indicate that the elderly relative power has significant effects on households’ budget shares. We obtain a clear picture of these effects using the estimated parameters to conduct simulations based on shifting resource control within the household. The graphs depicting the relationship between the budgets shares of expenditures and the elderly relative power are typically non-monotonic, varying significantly across items. Changes in generation-specific control of resources within household likely translate into changes in household expenditure patterns.