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Family economics applies economic concepts such as production, division of labor, distribution, and decision making to the family. It is used to explain outcomes unique to family—such as marriage, the decision to have children, fertility, time devoted to domestic production, and dowry payments using economic analysis.
The family, although recognized as fundamental from Adam Smith onward, received little systematic treatment in economics before the 1960s. Important exceptions are Thomas Robert Malthus' model of population growth[1] and Friedrich Engels'[2] pioneering work on the structure of family, the latter being often mentioned in Marxist and feminist economics. Since the 1960s, family economics has developed within mainstream economics, propelled by the new home economics started by Gary Becker, Jacob Mincer, and their students.[3] Standard themes include:
- Altruism in the family, including the rotten kid theorem.[4]
- Child health and mortality.[5]
- Family organization, background, and opportunities for children.[6]
- Fertility and the demand for children in developed and developing countries.[7][8]
- Human capital, social security, and the rise and fall of families.[9]
- Intergenerational mobility and inequality,[10] including the bequest motive.[11]
- Interrelation and trade-off of 'quantity' and 'quality' of children through investment of time and other resources of parents.[12][13][14]
- Macroeconomics of the family.[8][15][16][17]
- Mate selection,[18] search costs, marriage, divorce, and imperfect information.[8][19]
- Sexual division of labor, intra-household bargaining, and the household production function.[8][20]
Several surveys, treatises, and handbooks are available on the subject.[21][22][8][16]
- ^ Thomas Robert Malthus, 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Full text on WikiSource.
- ^ Friedrich Engels, 1981, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and State, International Publishers, pp 94-146
- ^ • Theodore W. Schultz, ed., .1974. Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, chapter-download links. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
• Grossbard, Amyra (1976). "An Economic Analysis of Polygyny: The Case of Maiduguri". Current Anthropology. 17 (4): 701–707. doi:10.1086/201804. JSTOR 2741267. S2CID 55341691.
• Keeley, Michael C. (1979). "An Analysis of the Age Pattern of First Marriage". International Economic Review. 20 (2): 527–544. doi:10.2307/2526498. JSTOR 2526498.
• Gary S. Becker, .1981, Enlarged ed., 1991. A Treatise on the FamilyDescription and scrollable preview link. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-90698-5. Description and scrollable preview link.
• Grossbard-Shechtman, Amyra (1984). "A Theory of Allocation of Time in Markets for Labour and Marriage". The Economic Journal. 94 (376): 863–882. doi:10.2307/2232300. JSTOR 2232300.
• Gary S. Becker, 1987. "family," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 2, pp. 281-86. Reprinted in Social Economics: The New Palgrave, 1989, pp. 65-76. - ^ Theodore C. Bergstrom, 2008. "Rotten Kid Theorem," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition, Abstract.
- ^ Janet Currie, 2008. "child health and mortality," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
- ^ • Shelly Lundberg and Robert A. Pollak, 2008. "family decision making," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
• Ben-Porath, Yoram (1980). "The F-connection: Families, Friends, and Firms and the Organization of Exchange" (PDF). Population and Development Review. 6 (1): 1–30. doi:10.2307/1972655. JSTOR 1972655. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-05-13. Retrieved 2013-01-19.
• Pollak, Robert A. (1985). "A Transaction Cost Approach to Families and Households" (PDF). Journal of Economic Literature. 23 (2): 581–608. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-02. Retrieved 2013-01-19. - ^ • Alicia Adsera, 2008. "fertility in developed countries," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
• T. Paul Schultz.2008. "fertility in developing countries," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. - ^ a b c d e Jeremy Greenwood, 2019. Evolving Households: The Imprint of Technology on Life, The MIT Press.
- ^ • Oded Galor, 2008. "human capital, fertility and growth," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
• John Ermisch, 2008. "family economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. - ^ Gary Solon, 2008. "intergenerational income mobility," " The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
- ^ • Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Lawrence H. Summers, 1981), "The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Accumulation." Journal of Political Economy, 89(40), p p. 70 6-732.
• John Laitner, 2008. "bequests and the life cycle model," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.Abstract.
• Kathleen M. McGarry, 2008. "inheritance and bequests." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. - ^ Becker, Gary S.; Tomes, Nigel (1976). "Child Endowments and the Quantity and Quality of Children". Journal of Political Economy. 84 (4, Part 2): S143–S162. doi:10.1086/260536. JSTOR 1831106. S2CID 53644677.
- ^ Hanushek, Eric A. (1992). "The Trade-off between Child Quantity and Quality". Journal of Political Economy. 100 (1): 84–117. doi:10.1086/261808. JSTOR 2138807. S2CID 154820218.
- ^ Schultz, Theodore W. (1981). Investing in People: The Economics of Population Quality. University of California Press. Description and scroll to chapter-preview links.
- ^ Gary S. Becker, 1988. "Family Economics and Macro Behavior," American Economic Review, 78(1), pp. 1-13..
- ^ a b Greenwood, Jeremy; Guner, Nezih; Vandenbroucke, Guillaume (2017). "Family Economics Writ Large" (PDF). Journal of Economic Literature. 55 (4): 1346–1434. doi:10.1257/jel.20161287.
- ^ Matthias Doepke and Michele Tertilt, 2016. "Families in Macroeconomics," in Handbook of Macroeconomics, Vol. 2, doi:10.3386/w22068
- ^ Hao Li, 2008. "assortative matching," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
- ^ Yoram Weiss, 2008. "marriage and divorce," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
- ^ Olivier Donni, 2008. "collective models of the household." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
- ^ • Gary S. Becker, 1987. "family," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 2, pp. 281-86. Reprinted in Social Economics: The New Palgrave, 1989, pp. 65-76.
• _____, 1981, Enlarged ed., 1991. A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-90698-5. Description and scrollable preview link.
• John Ermisch, 2008. "family economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
• _____, 2003. An Economic Analysis of the Family, Princeton. Description, Chapter 1 "Introduction" (press +), chapter-preview links.
• Mark R. Rosenzweig and Oded Stark, ed., 1997. Handbook of Population and Family Economics. lst-page ch. links, v. 1A, Elsevier. Description, v. 1A preview, and ch. 1 link. - ^ • Theodore C. Bergstrom, 1996. "Economics in a Family Way," Journal of Economic Literature, 34(4), pp. 1903-1934 Archived 2013-05-25 at the Wayback Machine.
• _____, 1997. "A Survey of Theories of the Family," ch. 2 in Handbook of Population and Family Economics, M. R. Rosenzweig and O. Stark, ed., vol 1A, pp. 21-75. Elsevier.