ABSTRACT
She approached consumer theory as a theory of human behavior. She argued that goods and services are no end goal, but merely instrumental in the production of welfare. She stressed the importance of what goes on in the household as a field worthy of economists’ attention. And she emphasized the importance of conceptualizing the consumer not in a timeless and spaceless world, but as a human being with a past and a social context. Because of this, some say that – writing in the first half of the twentieth century as she did – she “was a pioneer in the field of consumer economics,” “broadened the economics curriculum to include consumer topics,” “established Chicago as the premier university for the study of family and consumer economics,” and that her contribution to economics was “great” and “significant.”2
