Question

Briefly explain why we have seen less specialization within marriage, ie. more dual income families. Your explanation should focus on changes in men’s and women’s comparative advantages in market and home production respectively.

Answer 1

The idea that marriages are like companies can be found in the work of latest house economists, Marxists, and feminists. Some Marxists and feminists view marriage of lady and man as analogous to the employment relationship in a capitalist society. A worker who doesn't own any way of construction is an identical to a woman who cannot earn adequate income with no husband, so the husband in a loved ones is just like the capitalist of a corporation.An employment relationship between spouses also types the basis of some analyses in the lifestyle of the NHE. For instance, Shoshana Grossbard units both guys and ladies as in all probability hiring each and every other's work in household creation, which she calls "spousal labor or "Work-In-loved ones (WiHo)". To the extent that husbands appoint their other halves' WiHo and pay them a low "quasi-wage" females may also be considered as being exploited by their husbands, as claimed via Marxist-feminist economists.

Authorized possession of the loved ones is a query regarding the evaluation of marriages as businesses. Robert Ellickson has argued that homeowners of the family's capital must have extra have an effect on on selection-making regarding the loved ones than folks who work in the family's creation. In contrast, Grossbard has proposed that those doing the loved ones's construction will have to have extra manage over choices than owners of the loved ones's capital.That is yet another example of parallels between Chicago-educated feminist economists and Marxist-feminist economists.

The question of how work in domestic creation through one partner is compensated via the other partner who advantages from the work quantities to starting terms of trade in a drawback of specialization and division of labor. Gary Becker has analyzed division of labor within the household in terms of comparative abilities, generally assuming that women have a comparative competencies in family construction and men in production external the home This has resulted in a tendency for feminist economists to brush aside Becker's analyses of marriage.

Different economic explanations for marriage that have parallels in typical economic analyses of corporations comprise explanations emphasizing threat pooling and thus rate reductions in the risks of illness or being unemployed as a consequence of marriage, and the role of marriages in facilitating detailed investments such as youngsters