ABSTRACT
Why do economists need a feminist theory of the family? This question has two parts: “Why a theory of the family?” and “Why a feminist theory?” Economists need theories of families for understanding how production, consumption, and savings take place within families: what is produced and consumed, and how these decisions are made. We need frameworks for understanding how families participate in markets, demanding and supplying goods and labor. We need to know how human capital is formed and maintained within families. We need to know how a family’s demands and production translate into welfare levels for its various members. Any model of the effect of price changes, or taxes or transfers on family behavior must, implicitly or explicitly, rely on a theory of how families function. Beyond the social scientists’ need to understand, lies the policy-makers’ need to make wise policies. Better knowledge about what is happening in the family could improve policies related to child poverty and child support, household-sector savings rates, welfare and job training, the tax treatment of dependents and family-related expenses, social security, elder care, healthcare, and inheritance taxation, to name a few areas.
