Neoclassical Household Models and Modes of Household Production: Problems in the Analysis of African Agricultural Households

Abstract

Neoclassical models characterize agricultural households as unified production/consumptionunits in which labor is allocated according to principles of comparative advantage, income is pooled, and preferences for consumption and leisure are shared. This paper demonstrates that the assumptions and structure of both recursive and simultaneous agricultural household models are strikingly inconsistent with evidence from agricultural households in southern Cameroon and elsewhere in Africa. Fundamental revisions in the modeling of economic choice structures within agricultural households are required if men's and women's economic behavior is to be appropriately understood and reliably predicted. A Marxian analysis of the social relations of production within households can contribute to this process and can also indicate important new directions for agricultural policy analysis.