A Treatise on the Family: Enlarged Edition

by Gary S. Becker

Overview

Using the basic economic assumptions of maximizing behavior, stable preferences, and arid equilibria in explicit or implicit markets, Becker applies economic theory to the most sensitive and fateful personal decisions, such as choosing a spouse or having children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674252332
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/15/1993
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	440
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Gary S. Becker was University Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago. In 1992, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Enlarged Edition

Introduction

1. Single-Person Households

2. Division of Labor in Households and Families

Supplement: Human Capital, Effort, and the Sexual Division of Labor

3. Polygamy and Monogamy in Marriage Markets

4. Assortative Mating in Marriage Markets

5. The Demand for Children

Supplement: A Reformulation of the Economic Theory of Fertility

6. Family Background and the Opportunities of Children

7. Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility

Supplement: Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families

8. Altruism in the Family

9. Families in Nonhuman Species

10. Imperfect Information, Marriage, and Divorce

11. The Evolution of the Family

Supplement: The Family and the State

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

This truly pathbreaking book marries techniques and problems hitherto regarded as utterly incompatible--rigorous economic reasoning to understanding the family. The marriage is astoundingly productive. It is destined to affect the foundations of every science dealing with human behavior.

Milton Friedman

This truly pathbreaking book marries techniques and problems hitherto regarded as utterly incompatible--rigorous economic reasoning to understanding the family. The marriage is astoundingly productive. It is destined to affect the foundations of every science dealing with human behavior.

Editorial Reviews

Becker dazzles the reader… To challenge us collectively to think about what we could not yet explain was Gary Becker’s gift to us in the original edition of A Treatise on the Family. The new edition is a reminder that we still have far to go.

Contemporary Sociology - Debra Friedman

Destined to have a significant impact on a number of different disciplines, including economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, demography, epidemiology, and biology.

Science - Warren C. Sanderson

The most important book on the family to appear in many years. Becker’s stark economic conception of action cuts through the romantic mist that so often blinds social scientists to the hard choices faced by families and their members.

Journal of Economic Literature - Michael T. Hannan

This truly pathbreaking book marries techniques and problems hitherto regarded as utterly incompatible—rigorous economic reasoning to understanding the family. The marriage is astoundingly productive. It is destined to affect the foundations of every science dealing with human behavior.

Milton Friedman

Becker dazzles the reader...To challenge us collectively to think about what we could not yet explain was Gary Becker's gift to us in the original edition of A Treatise on the Family. The new edition is a reminder that we still have far to go.
— Debra Friedman

Contemporary Sociology

The most important book on the family to appear in many years. Becker's stark economic conception of action cuts through the romantic mist that so often blinds social scientists to the hard choices faced by families and their members.
— Michael T. Hannan

Journal of Economic Literature

Destined to have a significant impact on a number of different disciplines, including economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, demography, epidemiology, and biology.
— Warren C. Sanderson

Science