FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION AND DECISION-MAKING WITHIN WESTERN HOUSEHOLDS

This contribution discusses the three preceding papers in this special issue. Each of the authors, respectively Pahl, Wunderink, and Kirchle r, is concerned with different but related aspects of household financ ial organisation and decision-making. It is argued that it is very imp ortant to understand individual economic behaviour in such domains. Mo reover, it is necessary to pay particular attention to constraints ass ociated with specific roles played by different members of a household , as well as to the pervasive influence of gender. Each of the authors ' contributions is evaluated critically, and constructive proposals ar e offered as to how such work could and should be extended in future r esearch. In particular, considerable effort will be needed to develop our understanding of the household in non-Western cultures.