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The American Family and Family Economics

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Author Info
Shelly Lundberg () (University of Washington, University of Bergen and IZA)
Robert A. Pollak () (Washington University in St. Louis, NBER, CESifo and IZA)

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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.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 2715.

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Length: 35 pages
Date of creation: Mar 2007
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2715

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Related research
Keywords: family marriage fertility

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J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
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  3. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2007. "Marriage and divorce: changes and their driving forces," Working Paper Series 2007-03, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Audrey Light & Kathleen McGarry, 2004. "Why Parents Play Favorites: Explanations for Unequal Bequests," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1669-1681, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Lisa Gennetian, 2005. "One or two parents? Half or step siblings? The effect of family structure on young children's achievement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 415-436, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  29. Cigno, Alessandro, 1993. "Intergenerational transfers without altruism : Family, market and state," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 505-518, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Joaquín Andaluz & Miriam Marcén & José Alberto Molina, 2007. "Income Transfers, Welfare and Family Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 2804, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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