Households as Corporate Firms
An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting

Krislert Samphantharak
University of California, San Diego
Robert M. Townsend
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This investigation proposes a conceptual framework for measurement necessary for an analysis of household finance and economic development. The authors build on and, where appropriate, modify corporate financial accounts to create balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flows for households in developing countries, using an integrated household survey. The authors also illustrate how to apply the accounts to an analysis of household finance that includes productivity of household enterprises, capital structure, liquidity, financing, and portfolio management. The conceptualization of this analysis has important implications for measurement, questionnaire design, the modeling of household decisions, and the analysis of panel data.

'This is path-breaking work. This monograph lays out the data needed for high-quality empirical work and gives concrete examples of how it can be done. This work and methodology should and will become extremely influential.' Orazio Attanasio, University College London

‘In this monograph, Samphantharak and Townsend lay out the basic approach, tackle many detailed problems of implementation, and present intriguing empirical findings on rural Thai households’ productivity and financing constraints. The authors blaze a trail that many others
will follow.' John Y. Campbell, Harvard University

Contents
Part I. Households as Corporate Firms: 1. Introduction; 2. Conceptual framework; Part II. Household Financial Accounting: 3. Household surveys; 4. Constructing household financial statements from a household survey; Part III. Household Finance: 5. Financial analysis; 6. An application: liquidity constraints, kinship networks, and the financing of household investment; 7. Discussion: measurement and modeling.

Econometric Society Monographs, 46
February 2010 448pp
Hardback 9780521195829 £50.00 £40.00
Paperback 9780521124164 £17.99 £14.39
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