Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T08:50:17.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HOW “CHICAGOAN” ARE GARY BECKER’S ECONOMIC MODELS OF MARRIAGE?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2010

SHOSHANA GROSSBARD
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper describes Gary Becker’s theoretical models of marriage. At the micro level, these are all rational choice models. At the market level, Becker offers two major types of models: partial equilibrium models based on price theory as taught by Marshall and Friedman; and optimal sorting models based on optimal assignment models. This paper examines some of the possible intellectual influences on Becker’s theory of marriage, compares Becker’s research on marriage with that of some scholars interested in intra-marriage distribution, and documents that Becker’s students at Chicago were more interested in Becker’s Friedmanian models of marriage than in his optimal assignment models.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 377 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Apps, Patricia F. and Rees, Ray. 1988. “Taxation and the Household.” Journal of Public Economics 35: 355–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1960. “An Economic Analysis of Fertility.” In National Bureau Committee for Economic Research, Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, a Conference of the Universities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp 209–231Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1964. Human Capital. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1965. “A Theory of Allocation of Time.” Economic Journal 75: 493–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1973. “A Theory of Marriage: Part I.” Journal of Political Economy 81: 813–846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1974. “A Theory of Marriage: Part II.” Journal of Political Economy 82: 511–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1976a. The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1976b. “Prefatory Note to Special Issue about Gregg Lewis.” Journal of Political Economy 84(4): S1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. [1981] 1991a. A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1991b. “Milton Friedman.” In Shils, Edward, ed. Remembering the University of Chicago: Teachers, Scientists and Scholars. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 138–146.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1992. “Autobiography.”http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1992/becker-autobio.html.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1993. Private conversation with this author in Anaheim, CA, January.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 2004. Personal communication by email, October 12.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 2006. “On Milton Friedman’s Ideas.” The Becker/Posner blog. http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2006/11/on_milton_fried.html.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 2007. “Introduction to the Transaction Edition.” Economic Theory. Second edition. New Brunswick: Aldine Transaction.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. and Gregg Lewis, H.. 1973. “On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children.” Journal of Political Economy 81(2, pt. 2): S279–S288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S., Landes, Elizabeth, and Michael, Robert. 1977. “An Economic Analysis of Marital Instability.” Journal of Political Economy 85: 1141–1188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. and Murphy, Kevin M.. 2000. Social Economics. Market Behavior in a Social Environment. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap/Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Botticini, Maristella and Siow, Aloysius. 2003. “Why Dowries?” American Economic Review 93: 1385–1398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourguignon, Francois and Chiappori, Pierre-Andre. 1992. “Collective Models of Household Behaviour: An Introduction.” European Economic Review 36: 355–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, Martin. 1971. “A Note on the Economics of the Marriage Market.” Journal of Political Economy 79: 1424–1425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clignet, Remi and Sween, Joyce. 1977. “On Grossbard’s Economic Analysis of Polygyny in Maiduguri.” Current Anthropology 18: 100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaton, Angus S., Ruiz-Castillo, Javier, and Thomas, Duncan. 1989. “The Influence of Household Composition on Household Expenditure Patterns: Theory and Spanish Evidence.” Journal of Political Economy 97: 179–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmett, Ross B. 2007. “Sharpening Tools in the Workshop: The Workshop System and the Chicago School’s Success.” Paper presented at Conference on the Chicago School of Economics, Notre Dame University, September.Google Scholar
Freiden, Alan. 1972. “A Model of Marriage and Fertility.” PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Freiden, Alan. 1974. “The United States Marriage Market.” Journal of Political Economy 82: S34–S54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Milton. [1962] 1976. Price Theory. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuchs, Victor R. 1994. “Nobel Laureate Gary Becker: Ideas about Facts.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 8: 183–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gale, David and Shapley, Lloyd S.. 1962. “College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage.” American Mathematical Monthly 69: 9–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gronau, Reuben. 1970. “An Economic Approach to Marriage: The Intra-family Allocation of Time.” Paper presented at the Second World Congress of the Econometric Society, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Grossbard, Amyra. 1976. “An Economic Analysis of Polygamy: The Case of Maiduguri.” Current Anthropology 17: 701–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossbard, Amyra. 1978a. “Towards a Marriage between Economics and Anthropology and a General Theory of Marriage.” American Economic Review 68: 33–37.Google Scholar
Grossbard, Amyra. 1978b. “The Economics of Polygamy.” PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Grossbard, Shoshana Amyra and Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina. 2007. “Marriage Markets and Women’s Labor Force Participation.” Review of Economics of the Household 5: 249–278.Google Scholar
Grossbard-Shechtman, Amyra. 1984. “A Theory of Allocation of Time in Markets for Labor and Marriage.” Economic Journal 94: 863–882.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossbard-Shechtman, Shoshana A. 1993. On the Economics of Marriage. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Grossbard-Shechtman, Shoshana A. 2001. “The New Home Economics at Columbia and Chicago.” Feminist Economics 7(3): 103–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heer, David M. and Grossbard-Shechtman, Amyra. 1981. “The Impact of the Female Marriage Squeeze and the Contraceptive Revolution on Sex Roles and the Women’s Liberation Movement in the United States, 1960 to 1975.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 43(1): 49–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hildenbrand, Werner. 1982. “Core of an Economy.” In Arrow, Kenneth and Intriligator, Michael D., eds., Handbook of Mathematical Economics. Volume 2. Rotterdam: North Holland/Elsevier, pp. 831–877.Google Scholar
Hoddinott, John and Haddad, Lawrence. 1995. “’Does Female Income Share Influence Household Expenditures: Evidence from the Cote d’ Ivoire.” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 57: 77–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keeley, Michael C. 1974. “A Model of Marital Information: The Determinants of the Optimal Age at First Marriage and Differences in Age at Marriage.” PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Keeley, Michael C. 1977. “The Economics of Family Formation.” Economic Inquiry 25: 238–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. and Beckmann, Martin. 1957. “Assignment Problems and the Location of Economic Activities.” Econometrica 25: 53–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landes, Elizabeth. 1978. “The Economics of Alimony.” Journal of Legal Studies 1: 35–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazear, Edward P. 2000. “Economic Imperialism.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 115: 99–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemennicier, Bertrand. 1980. “La spécialisation des rôles conjugaux, les gains du mariage et la perspective du divorce.” Consommation 1: 27–71.Google Scholar
Lemennicier, Bertrand. 1988. Le marche du mariage et de la famille. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Lundberg, Shelly and Pollak, Robert A.. 1993. “Separate Sphere Bargaining and the Marriage Market.” Journal of Political Economy 101: 988–1010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manser, Marilyn and Brown, Murray. 1980. “Marriage and Household Decision Making: A Bargaining Analysis.” International Economic Review 21: 31–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McElroy, Marjorie B. 2006. Personal communication by email, January 18.Google Scholar
McElroy, Marjorie B. and Horney, Mary Jane. 1981. “Nash Bargained Household Decisions: Toward a Generalization of the Theory of Demand.” International Economic Review 22: 333–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medema, Steven G. 2007. “Introduction.” In Milton Friedman, Price Theory. New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine-Transaction.Google Scholar
Medema, Steven G. 2008. “Chicago Price Theory and Chicago Law and Economics.” Manuscript, University of Colorado, Denver, September.Google Scholar
Mincer, Jacob. 2006. “Acceptance Speech upon Receiving the First IZA Prize.” In Grossbard, Shoshana, ed., Jacob Mincer: A Pioneer of Modern Labor Economics. New York: Springer, pp. 19–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papps, Ivy. 1983. “The Role and Determinants of Bride Price: The Case of a Palestinian Village.” Current Anthropology 24: 203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, Elizabeth H. 1986. “Marriage and Divorce: Informational Constraints and Private Contracting,” American Economic Review 76: 437–454.Google Scholar
Pickford-Santos, Fredericka. 1970. “Marital Instability and Male-Female Complementarity.” PhD dissertation, Columbia University.Google Scholar
Pollak, Robert A. 2003. “Gary Becker’s Contributions to Family and Household Economics.” Review of Economics of the Household 1(1): 111–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, Vijayendra. 1993. “The Rising Price of Husbands: A Hedonic Analysis of Dowry Increases in Rural India.” Journal of Political Economy 101(4): 666–677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reder, Melvin W. 1982. “Chicago Economics: Permanence and Change.” Journal of Economic Literature 20: 1–38.Google Scholar
Reid, Margaret R. 1934. Economics of Household Production. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Robbins, Lionel. 1962. The Nature and Significance of Economic Science. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rosen, Sherwin. 1974. “Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition.” Journal of Political Economy 82: 34–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, Sherwin. 1981. “The Economics of Superstars.” American Economic Review 71(5): 845–858.Google Scholar
Schultz, T. W. 1974. Economics of the Family. Chicago: University of Chicago Press and NBER.Google Scholar
Shils, Edward, ed. 1991. Remembering the University of Chicago: Teachers, Scientists and Scholars. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Van Overtveldt, Johan. 2007. The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business. Chicago: Agate.Google Scholar