UNITARY VERSUS COLLECTIVE MODELS OF THE HOUSEHOLD: IS IT TIME TO SHIFT THE BURDEN OF PROOF?

Most development objectives focus on the well-being of individuals.Policies are targeted to increase the percentage of individualswho avoid poverty, who can read, who are free from hunger andillness, or who can find gainful employment. Individual welfare,however, is based in large part on a complex set of interactionsamong family members. Until recently most policy analyses implicitly viewed the householdas having only one set of preferences. This assumption has beena powerful tool for understanding household behaviour, suchas the distribution of tasks and goods. But a growing body ofevidence suggests that this view is an expedience that comesat considerable, and possibly avoidable, cost. The article arguesthat more effective policy instruments will emerge from analyzingthe processes by which households balance the diverse interestsof their members.