LOL

One strain of research is to develop heterogenous agent models where the household unit is the family unit. The notion is that to understand the impact of individual income risk on the savings decision and consequent wealth distribution of households, the family unit must be modeled since insurance within the family can act as a substitute for self-insurance through financial markets.

Think of the case when a family member becomes unemployed, your family can probably give you a loan with less restrictions than the bank can (although you might have to move back in with your parents in some cases).

In addition, the argument is that families pool risk and optimally allocate the time devoted to work and play. Like member A goes to work and brings home income; member B expends shopping time and buys the groceries needed for home.

Anyway, economists have tried to test this model and the result is that, against the data, some of the implications of the model did not stand.

the line that cracked me up was this summary conclusion:

Mazzocco (2007) tests and rejects the hypothesis of intra-household commitment, suggesting that ex-ante efficiency in marriage is too much to hope for.

some things just can't be helped eh