Measuring the cost of children

"The purpose of this paper is to present a survey and synthesis of those economic models that have been used to derive estimates of marginal child costs from cross-sectional data on household expenditure patterns [in Australia].... In the next section the argument that the 'costs of children' should not be a concern of social policy is considered (and rejected). Section III then summarises the models.... In Section IV an Engel curve system estimated from the 1988-89 Household Expenditure Survey is used to compare [the models].... In the concluding section some directions for further research and data collection strategies are discussed."