Working Paper: NBER ID: w12908
Authors: Shelly Lundberg; Robert A. Pollak
Abstract: The twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Gary Becker's path-breaking "Treatise on the Family" provides an occasion to reexamine both the American family and family economics. We begin by discussing how families have changed in recent decades: the separation of sex, marriage, and childbearing; fewer children and smaller households; converging work and education patterns for men and women; class divergence in partnering and parenting strategies; and the replacement of what had been family functions and home production by government programs and market transactions. After discussing recent work in family economics that attempts to explain these changes, we point out some challenging areas for further analysis, and highlight issues of commitment in two primary family relationships: those between men and women, and those between parents and children. We conclude by discussing the effectiveness of policies to target benefits to certain family members (e.g., children) or to promote marriage and fertility.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: D1; J1; J2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| separation of sex, marriage, and childbearing (J12) | fewer children (J13) |
| separation of sex, marriage, and childbearing (J12) | smaller households (D10) |
| economic independence and reliable contraception (J13) | separation of sex, marriage, and childbearing (J12) |
| policies targeting benefits to family members (J12) | child wellbeing (I31) |
| mothers' control over resources (J12) | child wellbeing (I31) |
| decreasing social imperative for marriage (J12) | rise in nonmarital childbearing (J12) |
| traditional nuclear families (J12) | better educational outcomes for children (I24) |