The share of household resources devoted to children is hard to identify because consumption is measured at the household level and goods can be shared. Using semiparametric restrictions on individual preferences within a collective model, we identify how total household resources are divided up among household members by observing how each family member's expenditures on a single private good like clothing vary with income and family size. Using data from Malawi we show how resources devoted to wives and children vary by family size and structure, and we find that standard poverty indices understate the incidence of child poverty. (JEL I31, I32, J12, J13, O12, O15)

We invent Implicit Marshallian Demands, a new type of demand function that combines desirable features of Hicksian and Marshallian demand functions. We propose and estimate the Exact Af ne Stone Index (EASI) Implicit Marshallian Demand system. Like the Almost Ideal Demand (AID) system, EASI budget shares are linear in parameters given real expenditures. However, unlike the AID, EASI demands can have any rank and its Engel curves can be polynomials or splines of any order in real expenditures. EASI error terms equal random utility parameters to account for unobserved preference heterogeneity. EASI demand functions can be estimated using GMM or three stage least squares, and, like AID, an approximate EASI model can be estimated by linear regression. JEL Codes: D11, D12, C31, C33, C51

Abstract. The literature on ethnically based earnings differentials in Canada has focused on differences either between whites and visible minorities or between particular ethnic groups. In this paper we examine both earnings differentials between whites and visible minorities, and earnings differentials within the white and visible-minority groupings. Among both men and women we þnd substantial earnings differentials both between and within the white and visible-minority groupings. Differentials between whites and visible minorities suggest that the visible-minority category is a useful indicator of economic discrimination. Differentials within these groupings, however, suggest that it is only a rough indicator.

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We invent Implicit Marshallian Demands, a new type of demand function that combines desirable features of Hicksian and Marshallian demand functions. We propose and estimate the Exact Af ne Stone Index (EASI) Implicit Marshallian Demand system. Like the Almost Ideal Demand (AID) system, EASI budget shares are linear in parameters given real expenditures. However, unlike the AID, EASI demands can have any rank and its Engel curves can be polynomials or splines of any order in real expenditures. EASI error terms equal random utility parameters to account for unobserved preference heterogeneity. EASI demand functions can be estimated using GMM or three stage least squares, and, like AID, an approximate EASI model can be estimated by linear regression. JEL Codes: D11, D12, C31, C33, C51

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Background Disorders affecting mental health are highly prevalent, can be disabling, and are associated with substantial premature mortality. Yet national health system responses are frequently under-resourced, inefficient, and ineffective, leading to an imbalance between disease burden and health expenditures. We estimated the disease burden in the Americas caused by disorders affecting mental health. This measure was adjusted to include mental, neurological, and behavioural disorders that are frequently not included in estimates of mental health burden. We propose a framework for assessing the imbalance between disease burden and health expenditures. MethodsIn this cross-sectional, ecological study, we extracted disaggregated disease burden data from the Global Health Data Exchange to produce country-level estimates for the proportion of total disease burden attributable to mental disorders, neurological disorders, substance use disorders, and self-harm (MNSS) in the Americas. We collated data from the WHO Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems and the WHO Mental Health Atlas on country-level mental health spending as a proportion of total government health expenditures, and of psychiatric hospital spending as a proportion of mental health expenditures. We used a metric capturing the imbalance between disease burden and mental health expenditures, and modelled the association between this imbalance and real (ie, adjusted for purchasing power parity) gross domestic product (GDP). FindingsData were collected from July 1, 2016, to March 1, 2017. MNSS comprised 19% of total disability-adjusted lifeyears in the Americas in 2015. Median spending on mental health was 2•4% (IQR 1•3-4•1) of government health spending, and median allocation to psychiatric hospitals was 80% (52-92). This spending represented an imbalance in the ratio between disease burden and efficiently allocated spending, ranging from 3:1 in Canada and the USA to 435:1 in Haiti, with a median of 32:1 (12-170). Mental health expenditure as a proportion of government health spending was positively associated with real GDP (β=0•68 [95% CI 0•24-1•13], p=0•0036), while the proportion allocated to psychiatric hospitals (β=-0•5 [-0•79 to -0•22], p=0•0012) and the imbalance in efficiently allocated spending (β=-1•38 [-1•97 to -0•78], p=0•0001) were both inversely associated with real GDP. All estimated coefficients were significantly different from zero at the 0•005 level.Interpretation A striking imbalance exists between government spending on mental health and the related disease burden in the Americas, which disproportionately affects low-income countries and is likely to result in undertreatment, increased avoidable disability and mortality, decreased national economic output, and increased household-level health spending.