Evolving Households: The Imprint of Technology on Life

by Jeremy Greenwood

Overview

The transformative effect of technological change on households and culture, seen from a macroeconomic perspective through simple economic models.

In Evolving Households, Jeremy Greenwood argues that technological progress has had as significant an effect on households as it had on industry. Taking a macroeconomic perspective, Greenwood develops simple economic models to study such phenomena as the rise in married female labor force participation, changes in fertility rates, the decline in marriage, and increased longevity. These trends represent a dramatic transformation in everyday life, and they were made possible by advancements in technology. Greenwood also addresses how technological progress can cause social change.

Greenwood shows, for example, how electricity and labor-saving appliances freed women from full-time household drudgery and enabled them to enter the labor market. He explains that fertility dropped when higher wages increased the opportunity cost of having children; he attributes the post–World War II baby boom to a combination of labor-saving household technology and advances in obstetrics and pediatrics. Marriage rates declined when single households became more economically feasible; people could be more discriminating in their choice of a mate. Technological progress also affects social and cultural norms. Innovation in contraception ushered in a sexual revolution. Labor-saving technological progress at home, together with mechanization in industry that led to an increase in the value of brain relative to brawn for jobs, fostered the advancement of women's rights in the workplace. Finally, Greenwood attributes increased longevity to advances in medical technology and rising living standards, and he examines healthcare spending, the development of new drugs, and the growing portion of life now spent in retirement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262039239
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	01/29/2019
Series:	The MIT Press
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeremy Greenwood is Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

1 More Working Mothers 1

1 Measuring the Allocation of Time 2

2 The Unisex Single Model of Labor Supply 5

3 Married Female Labor Supply 25

4 Calibrating Labor Supply Models 35

5 Household Production Theory 37

6 The Rise in Married Female Labor Supply 45

7 The Gender Wage Gap 62

8 Brain and Brawn 65

9 The Division of Labor in the Household 69

10 Literature Review 72

11 Problems 76

2 The Baby Boom and Baby Bust 79

1 Definitions of Fertility 80

2 Fertility 1800-1990 83

3 The Mystery of the Baby Boom 86

4 A Basic Model of Fertility 89

5 The Size and Start of the Baby Boom in OECD Countries 100

6 Advances in Obstetric and Pediatric Medicine 103

7 Fertility and Wars: The Case of World War I in France 108

8 The Choice between Jobs and Kids 112

9 Malthus 117

10 Literature Review 122

11 Problems 127

3 The Decline in Marriage 129

1 Love or Money 130

2 Definitions for Marriage and Divorce Rates 131

3 Trends in Marriage and Divorce 132

4 A Basic Model of Marriage 140

5 Divorce 151

6 Assortative Mating 156

7 Growing Up with a Single Mother 162

8 The Beckerian Theory of Marriage 170

9 Literature Review 178

10 Problems 179

4 Social Change 181

1 Women's Rights in the Workplace 184

2 Mothers and Sons 191

3 The Sexual Revolution, 1900-2000 195

4 Measures of Nonmarital Births 196

5 Technological Progress in Contraception 198

6 A Model of Premarital Sex 204

7 The Socialization of Children 208

8 The Frequency of Sex, a Digression 220

9 The Spirit of Capitalism 223

10 Literature Review 230

11 Problems 232

5 Increased Longevity and Longer Retirement 235

1 Better Health 236

2 The Development of New Drugs 243

3 Health Insurance 247

4 AIDS 251

5 The Trend in Retirement 255

6 Old-Age Social Security 263

7 Literature Review 266

8 Problems 267

6 Conclusion 269

Mathematical Appendix 275

1.A Maximizing a Function 275

2.A Total Differentials 281

3.A Leibniz's Rule 282

4.A Distribution Functions and Correlation Coefficients 282

5.A A Linear First-Order Difference Equation 286

References 291

Index 301

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The household sector is important and is experiencing dramatic change. This book is useful for both undergraduate and graduate teaching. It raises research questions to be resolved. It shows undergraduates how to use economic reasoning in household management.

—Edward C. Prescott, Regents Professor of Economics, Arizona State University; 2004 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

This fine book improves both our theories and our measurements of fundamental components of economics including labor supply, choices about education and human capital, the division of work and leisure among family members, and how we should measure national product in ways that can provide information about individual and social welfare.

—Thomas J. Sargent, Professor of Economics, New York University; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; 2011 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

In this new monograph Jeremy Greenwood has constructed elegant theoretical models incorporating family models featuring men and women making hard choices about who in the family does what. Over the past decade, he has calibrated these models to a century of technological innovations that have made it easier for women to enter the labor force. He has put all these pieces—evidence and economic logic—together and it worked! This is applied economic theory at its best.

—Robert E. Lucas, Jr., The John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Economics and the College, University of Chicago; 1995 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

Evolving Households is a superb contribution. At every step of the way, Greenwood uses a uniquely comprehensive combination of facts and theory to provide important insights about the evolution of families and social change. The book is a precious resource for anybody—scholars, educators, and students—who are actively engaged in family economics.

—Claudia Olivetti, Professor of Economics, Boston College