Chiappori, Pierre-AndreNaidoo, Jesse2020-10-292020-01Chiappori, P.A. & Naidoo, J. 2020, 'The Engel curves of non-cooperative households', The Economic Journal, vol. 130, no. 627, pp. 653–674, https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uez069.0013-0133 (print)1468-0297 (online)10.1093/ej/uez069http://hdl.handle.net/2263/76648This paper is partly based on Naidoo (2015), Naidoo’s Ph.D. thesis at the University of Chicago.We provide a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for a system of Engel curves to have been generated by a non-cooperative model of family behaviour. These conditions fully characterise the local behaviour of household-level consumption in the cross-section, i.e., as a function of total income and distribution factors. In this setting, any demand system compatible with a non-cooperative model is also compatible with a collective model, but the converse is not true. We describe how these nested conditions may be tested using standard instrumental-variables strategies.en© 2019 Royal Economic Society. Published by Oxford University Press.HouseholdsEngel curvesNon-cooperative modelFamily behaviourHousehold-level consumptionPostprint Article