The consumption patterns of lone-parent and two-parent Maltese families

Abstract

Differences in household expenditures are a key area of interest, and Malta provides an ideal setting for studying these variations. Existing research highlights that household composition significantly influences expenditure patterns, with two-parent and lone-parent households demonstrating notably distinct consumption behaviours. This dissertation aims to examine the differences in consumption expenditures between two-parent and lone-parent households across various spending categories in Malta. Drawing on microdata from the 2015 Household Budgetary Survey (HBS), this dissertation utilises both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis and the Tobit model to examine variations in expenditure patterns across different household types. The Tobit model is particularly effective in handling the censored nature of expenditure data, capturing cases where households have zero expenditures in certain categories. This study found that lone-parent households, on average, spend less across most consumption categories compared to two-parent households. These findings contribute to the field of family economics by providing a deeper understanding of how household composition affects consumption patterns within these two-family types.