Evolving Households: The Imprint of Technology on Life

337 Pages·2019·5.956 MB·English

by  Jeremy Greenwood

Evolving Households

Evolving Households
TheImprintofTechnologyonLife
JeremyGreenwood
TheMITPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
(cid:2)c 2018MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyany
electronicormechanicalmeans(includingphotocopying,recording,orinformation
storageandretrieval)withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
This book was set in Stone Serif by Westchester Publishing Services. Printed and
boundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Greenwood,Jeremy,author.
Title:Evolvinghouseholds:theimprintoftechnologyonlife/Jeremy
Greenwood.
Description:Cambridge,MA:MITPress,[2018]|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2018016802|ISBN9780262039239(hardcover:alk.paper)
Subjects:LCSH:Technologicalinnovations—Economicaspects—United
States—History.|Families—UnitedStates—History.|United
States—Socialconditions.
Classification:LCCHC110.T4G6942018|DDC303.48/30973—dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018016802
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ToAmy,whoknowsmoreaboutthefamilythanIeverwill.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1 MoreWorkingMothers 1
1 MeasuringtheAllocationofTime 2
2 TheUnisexSingleModelofLaborSupply 5
3 MarriedFemaleLaborSupply 25
4 CalibratingLaborSupplyModels 35
5 HouseholdProductionTheory 37
6 TheRiseinMarriedFemaleLaborSupply 45
7 TheGenderWageGap 62
8 BrainandBrawn 65
9 TheDivisionofLaborintheHousehold 69
10 LiteratureReview 72
11 Problems 76
2 TheBabyBoomandBabyBust 79
1 DefinitionsofFertility 80
2 Fertility,1800–1990 83
3 TheMysteryoftheBabyBoom 86
4 ABasicModelofFertility 89
5 TheSizeandStartoftheBabyBoominOECDCountries 100
6 AdvancesinObstetricandPediatricMedicine 103
7 FertilityandWars:TheCaseofWorldWarIinFrance 108
8 TheChoicebetweenJobsandKids 112
9 Malthus 117
10 LiteratureReview 122
11 Problems 127
3 TheDeclineinMarriage 129
1 LoveorMoney 130
2 DefinitionsforMarriageandDivorceRates 131
viii Contents
3 TrendsinMarriageandDivorce 132
4 ABasicModelofMarriage 140
5 Divorce 151
6 AssortativeMating 156
7 GrowingUpwithaSingleMother 162
8 TheBeckerianTheoryofMarriage 170
9 LiteratureReview 178
10 Problems 179
4 SocialChange 181
1 Women’sRightsintheWorkplace 184
2 MothersandSons 191
3 TheSexualRevolution,1900–2000 195
4 MeasuresofNonmaritalBirths 196
5 TechnologicalProgressinContraception 198
6 AModelofPremaritalSex 204
7 TheSocializationofChildren 208
8 TheFrequencyofSex,aDigression 220
9 TheSpiritofCapitalism 223
10 LiteratureReview 230
11 Problems 232
5 IncreasedLongevityandLongerRetirement 235
1 BetterHealth 236
2 TheDevelopmentofNewDrugs 243
3 HealthInsurance 247
4 AIDS 251
5 TheTrendinRetirement 255
6 Old-AgeSocialSecurity 263
7 LiteratureReview 266
8 Problems 267
6 Conclusion 269
MathematicalAppendix 275
1.A MaximizingaFunction 275
2.A TotalDifferentials 281
3.A Leibniz’sRule 282
4.A DistributionFunctionsandCorrelationCoefficients 282
5.A ALinearFirst-OrderDifferenceEquation 286
References 291
Index 301
Acknowledgments
ManygenerationsofstudentsattheUniversityofPennsylvaniahavebeen
subjectedintheclassroomtoversionsofthebook.Feedbackfromthestu-
dents came in many forms: questions in class, pointing out errors and
shortcomings, and sometimes just the looks on faces. As a result the pre-
sentationhasevolvedovertime.StudentsattheUniversitätKonstanzalso
providedsomecommentsduringashortcoursetaughtthere.Iamespecially
gratefultomyformergraduatestudentsattheUniversitiesofPennsylvania
and Rochester who followed me into the area of family economics. They
never questioned the wisdom of the pursuit, which at times must have
seemedariskyventure.Allhavepublishedtheirownresearchinthisarea,
aswellascollaboratedonresearchwithme.Theoldergenerationsofthem
arenowdistinguishedresearchers,whiletheyoungeronesareofftoagood
start.So,thanksgotoNezihGuner,KarenA.Kopecky,CezarSantos,Ananth
Seshadri,GuillaumeVandenbroucke,DavidWeiss,andMehmetYorukoglu.
Iamproudofallofthem.NezihGuner,inparticular,hasaccompaniedme
ontheadventurefromtheverystartandhascontinuedworkingwithme
untilthisday,sonoamountofthankscanrepaythedebtIowetohim.
Emily Taber, the acquisitions editor at MIT Press, read the entire
manuscript and provided many great comments, both macro and micro,
that have been incorporated into the book. Several reviewers had useful
suggestions as well, which substantially changed the format of the book.
Last,IamgratefultoThomasJ.Sargent,whointroducedmetoMITPress.