ABSTRACT
The study of the consequences of the existence and behaviour of the family.
As a major social institution the family requires the attention of the economist. So much of economics has been about the individual that this branch of the subject can examine the behaviour within and between such collective entities. It shares with the firm its potential for production and also, like the national economy, is a network of consumption and production activities organised according to principles which vary from a central dictatorship to considerable democracy.
