Economics of the Household
Course Objectives
Pioneered by Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer in 1960s,
ousehold economics?or
amily
economics?has become a major filed in economics ever since. This course goes beyond the
traditional analysis of consumer demand and focuses on issues such as allocation of time
between leisure and work, investment in education and health, fertility decision, and finally
the formation of a family. You will witness how microeconomic theory can interpret the
underlying economic forces that shape the observed behavior and the trend of the
households.
Course Information
Lecture and discussion
Course Descriptions/Schedule
I. Introduction Rosenzweig and Stark, ?Introduction: Population and family economics,?in
Handbook of Population and Family Economics, Volume 1A, Amsterdam, North Holland:
1997, Chapter 1. II. Consumption and Saving Carroll, Christopher D. (1994).
ow
Future Income Affect Current Consumption??Quarterly Journal of Economics, 109(1):
111-148. Deaton, Angus S. (1991).
aving and Liquidty Constraints,?Econometrica, 59:
1221-1248. Dynan, K. E., Jonanthon S. Skinner, and S. P. Zeldes. (2000).
o the Rich
Save More??Manuscript, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Hurd, M. D.
(1997).
he Economics of Individual Aging,?in Handbook of Population and Family
Economics, Volume 1B, Amsterdam, North Holland: 1997. Kotlikoff, L. J. (1988).
ntergenerational Transfers and Savings,?Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2(2): 41-58.
Modigliani, F. ( 1988).
he Role of Intergenerational Transfers and Life-Cycle Saving in
the Accumulation of Wealth,?Journal of Economics Perspectives, 2(2): 15-40. Poterba,
James M. (2000).
tock Market Wealth and Consumption,?Journal of Economics
Perspectives, 14(2): 99-118. Souleles, N. S. (1999).
he Response of Household
Consumption to Income Tax Refunds,?American Economic Review, 89(4): 947-958. III.
Work and Leisure Ashenfelter, Orley and Mark W. Plant, (1990). "Nonparametric
Estimates of the Labor Supply Effects of Negative Income Tax Programs," Journal of
Labor Economics 8(2): S396-S415 Becker, Gary. 1965.
Theory of Allocation of
Time.?Economic Journal, 75: 493-517. Gronau, R. (1977), "Leisure, Home Production,
and Work
he Theory of Allocation of Time Revisited," Journal of Political Economy 85:
1099-1123. Heckman, James J. (1979). "Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error,"
Econometrica, Vol. 47(1): 153-162 Heckman, J. (1993), "What Have We Learned about
Labor Supply in the Last 25 Years?" American Economic Review, 83(2), May, 116-121
Heckman, J. and T. MaCurdy (1980), "A Life Cycle Model of Female Labour Supply."
Review of Economic Studies, 47(1), 47-74. Killingsworth, M. and J. Heckman (1986),
"Labor Supply of Women," in Ashenfelter and Layard (eds.) Handbook of Labor
Economics, Vol. 1. Hoynes, Hilary (1996).
elfare Transfers in Two-Parent Families:
Labor Supply and Welfare Participation Under AFDC-UP.?Econometrica 64.2, March:
295- 332. Hausman, J. A. (1980), "The Effect of Wages, Taxes, and Fixed Costs on
Women
Labor Force Participation." Journal of Public Economics, 14, 161-194.
Lemieux, T., B. Fortin, and P. Fr 嶰 hette (1994), "The Effect of Taxes on Labor Supply in
the Underground Economy," American Economic Review, 84, 231-254. MaCurdy, T.E.
(1981).
n Empirical Model of Labor Supply in a Life- Cycle Setting.?Journal of
Political Economics, 89: 1059-1085. Pencavel, John, (1986). "Labor Supply of Men: A
Survey," in Orley Ashenfelter and Richard Layard, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics,
vol. 1, North-Holland. Moffitt, R. (1990).
he Econometrics of Kinked Budget
Constraints.?Journal of Economic Perspectives 4: 119-139. Blundell, Richard, and Thomas
MaCurdy, (1999). "Labor Supply: A Review of Alternative Approaches," in Orley
Ashenfelter and David Card, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 3,
North-Holland. Welch, Finis, (1997).
ages and Participation,?Journal of Labor
Economics, S77-S103. IV. Human Capital Ashenfelter, O. and D. Zimmerman (1994),
"Estimates of the Returns to Schooling from Sibling Data: Fathers, Sons, and Brothers,"
Review of Economics and Statistics, 1-9. Becker, Gary S., Human Capital. 2dn ed. New
York: National Bureau of Economic Research. Becker, Gary S. (1962)
nvestment in
Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis?Journal of Political Economy, 70(5): 9-49. Becker,
Gary S. (1964) Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special
Reference to Education, New York: National Bureau of Economic Research. Becker, Gary
S. and Barry R. Chiswick (1966)
ducation and the Distribution of Earnings?American
Economic Review, 56(2): 358-369. Becker, Gary S. and Nigel Tomes (1986).
uman
Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families,?Journal of Labor Economics, 4(3): S1-S39.
Blau, F., and Khan, L. (2002).
ender Differences in Pay? Journal of Economic
Perspective, 14(4): 75-79 Barry Chiswick, (2003). "Jacob Mincer, Experience and the
Distribution of Earnings," Review of Economics of the Household, 1(4): 343-361. Card,
D., and Lemieux, T. (2002).
an Fall in Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for
Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis? Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(2):
705-746 Card, D. (1999), "The Causal Effect of Education on Earnings," chapter in The
Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 3. M. Grossman (1972). "On the Concept of Health
Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, 80(2): 223-255. Katz,
L., and Murphy, K. (1992).
hanges in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand
Factors? Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107(1): 35-78 Mincer, Jacob (1962)
n-the-Job Training: Costs, Returns and Some Implications?Journal of Political Economy,
70(5): S50-S79. Mincer, Jacob (1974) Schooling, Experience and Earnings, New York:
National Bureau of Economic Research. Murphy, Kevin M. and Finis Welch (1990)
mpirical Age-Earnings Profiles?Journal of Labor Economics, 8(2): 202-229. George
Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2004. "Returns to investment in education: a
further update," Education Economics, 12(2): 111-134. Kenneth I. Wolpin,
eterminants
and consequences of the mortality and health of infants and children,?in Handbook of
Population and Family Economics, Volume 1A, Amsterdam, North Holland: 1997, Chapter
8. Robert William Fogel,
ew findings on secular trends in nutrition and mortality: Some
implications for population theory,?in Handbook of Population and Family Economics,
Volume 1A, Amsterdam, North Holland: 1997, Chapter 9. Schultz, T.W. (1961)
nvestment in Human Capital?American Economic Review, 51 (1): 1-17. V. The Demand
for Children Becker, Gary S & Lewis, H Gregg (1973). "On the Interaction between the
Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, 81(2):S279-88 Joseph
Hotz, Jacob Alex Klerman and Robert J. Willis,
he economics of fertility in developed
countries,?in Handbook of Population and Family Economics, Volume 1A, Amsterdam,
North Holland: 1997, Chapter 7. Hotz, Joseph, and Robert Miller (1988).
n Empirical
Analysis of Life Cycle Fertility and Female Labor Supply,?Econometrica, 56: 91-118.
Moffit, Robert. 1998.
he Effect of Welfare on Marriage and Fertility.?In Welfare, the
Family, and Reproductive Behavior, ed. Robert A. Moffit. Washington, D.C.: National
Academy Press. Moffit, Robert. (1984). ?The Estimation of Fertility Equations on Panel
Data.?Journal of Human Resources, 19(1): 22-34. Al-Qudsi, Sulayman, (1998).
he
demand for children in Arab countries: Evidence from panel and count data
models.?Journal of Population Economics, 11: 435-452. Schultz, Paul. (1973).
Preliminary Survey of Economic Analyses of Fertility.?American Economic Review, 63:
71-87. T. Paul Schultz,
emand for children in low income countries,?in Handbook of
Population and Family Economics, Volume 1A, Amsterdam, North Holland: 1997, Chapter
7. Tsay, Wen-Jen, and C. Y. Cyrus Chu. 2005.
Taiwan
he Pattern of Birth Spacing during
Demographic Transition.?Journal of Population Economics, 18: 323-336.
Whittington, Leslie, James Alm, and Elizabeth Peters. (1990).
ertility and the Personal
Exemption: Implicit Pronatalist Policy in the United States.?Public Finance Quarterly, 21:
378-398. Zang, Junsen, Jason Quan, and Peter Meerbergen. 1994.
he Effect of
Tax-Transfer Policies on Fertility in Canada 1921-1988.?Journal of Human Resources, 29:
181-201. VI. Marriage and Divorce Becker, Gary. (1973).
Theory of Marriage: Part
I.?Journal of Political Economy, 81:813-46. Becker, Gary. (1974). "A Theory of Marriage,
Part II," Journal of Political Economy 82: S11-S26. Brien, M. J. (1997).
acial
Difference in Marriage and the Role of Marriage Markets.?Journal of Human Resources,
32(4), 741-778. Hoffman, S. D. and G. J. Duncan (1995).
he Effect of Incomes, Wages,
and AFDC Benefits on Marital Disruption.?Journal of Human Resources, 30 (1):19-41.
Weiss,Y. (1997).
he formation and dissolution of families : Why marry? Who marries
whom? And what happens upon divorce??in Handbook of Population and Family
Economics, Volume 1A, Amsterdam, North Holland: 1997, Chapter 3. Whittington, L. A.
and J. Alm. (2003). : The Effect of Public Policy on Marital Status in the United States.?In
S. A. Grossbard-Shechtman (Ed.), Marriage and the Economy. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Textbook/Reference
Bryant, Kieth and Cathleen Zick, 2006. The Economics Organization of the Household,
2nd/e, Cambridge. Lord, William. 2002. Household Dynamics: Economic Growth and
Policy, Oxoford.
Grading
Grade: Term Paper 20% Presentation 10% Midterm Exam 35% Final Exam 35%
Available Support Services
Monday and Thursday 12:00-1:00 or by appointment