A Treatise on the Family. G. S. Becker. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1981. Gary Becker is one of the most famous and influential economists of the second half of the 20th century, a fervent contributor to and expounder of the University of Chicago free-market philosophy, and winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in economics. Although any book with the word "treatise" in its title is clearly intended to have an impact, one coming from someone as brilliant and controversial as Becker certainly had such a lofty goal. It has received many article-length reviews in several disciplines (Ben-Porath, 1982; Bergmann, 1995; Foster, 1993; Hannan, 1982), which is one measure of its scholarly importance, and yet its impact is, I think, less than it may have initially appeared, especially for scholars with substantive interests in the family. This book is, its title notwithstanding, more about economics and the economic approach to behavior than about the family. In the first sentence of the preface, Becker writes "In this book, I develop an economic or rational choice approach to the family." Lest anyone accuse him of focusing on traditional (i.e., material) economics topics, such as family income, poverty, and labor supply, he immediately emphasizes that those topics are not his focus. "My intent is more ambitious: to analyze marriage, births, divorce, division of labor in households, prestige, and other non-material behavior with the tools and framework developed for material behavior." Indeed, the book includes chapters on many of these issues. One chapter examines the principles of the efficient division of labor in households, three analyze marriage and divorce, three analyze various child-related issues (fertility and intergenerational mobility), and others focus on broader family issues, such as intrafamily resource allocation. His analysis is not, he believes, constrained by time or place. His intention is "to present a comprehensive analysis that is applicable, at least in part, to families in the past as well as the present, in primitive as well as modern societies, and in Eastern as well as Western cultures." His tone is profoundly conservative and utterly skeptical of any constructive role for government programs. There is a clear sense of how much better things were in the old days of a genderbased division of labor and low market-work rates for married women. Indeed, Becker is ready and able to show in Chapter 2 that such a state of affairs was efficient and induced not by market or societal discrimination (although he allows that it might exist) but by small underlying household productivity differences that arise primarily from what he refers to as "complementarities" between caring for young children while carrying another to term. Most family scholars would probably find that an unconvincingly simple explanation for a profound and complex phenomenon. What, then, is the salient contribution of Treatise on the Family? It is not literally the idea that economics could be applied to the nonmarket sector and to family life because Becker had already established that with considerable success and influence. At its core, microeconomics is simple, characterized by a belief in the importance of prices and markets, the role of self-interested or rational behavior, and, somewhat less centrally, the stability of preferences. It was Becker's singular and invaluable contribution to appreciate that the behaviors potentially amenable to the economic approach were not limited to phenomenon with explicit monetary prices and formal markets. Indeed, during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, he did undeniably important and pioneering work extending the domain of economics to such topics as labor market discrimination, fertility, crime, human capital, household production, and the allocation of time. Nor is Becker's contribution the detailed analyses themselves. Many of them are, frankly, odd, idiosyncratic, and off-putting. …

A Treatise on the Family

A detailed review of the education sector in Australia as in the data provided by the 2006 edition of the OECD's annual publication, 'Education at a Glance' is presented. While the data has shown that in almost all OECD countries educational attainment levels are on the rise, with countries showing impressive gains in university qualifications, it also reveals that a large of share of young people still do not complete secondary school, which remains a baseline for successful entry into the labour market.

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Education at a Glance

This paper develops a unied growth model that captures the historical evolution of population,technology,and output. It encompasses theendogenous transitionbetween three regimes that have characterized economic development. The economy evolves from aMalthusianregime,wheretechnologicalprogressis slow andpopulationgrowthprevents anysustainedriseinincomepercapita,intoaPost-Malthusianregime,wheretechnological progress rises and population growth absorbs only part of output growth. Ultimately, a demographic transition reverses the positive relationship between income and population growth,andtheeconomyentersaModernGrowthregimewithreducedpopulationgrowth

Population, Technology, and Growth: From Malthusian Stagnation to the Demographic Transition and Beyond

We analyse an economy where managers engage both in the adoption of technologies from the world frontier and in innovation activities The selection of high-skill managers is more important for innovation activities As the economy approaches the technology frontier, selection becomes more important As a result, countries at early stages of development pursue an investment-based strategy, with long-term relationships, high average size and age of firms, large average investments, but little selection Closer to the world technology frontier, there is a switch to an innovation-based strategy with short-term relationships, younger firms, less investment and better selection of managers We show that relatively backward economies may switch out of the investment-based strategy too soon, so certain economic institutions and policies, such as limits on product market competition or investment subsidies, which encourage the investment-based strategy may be beneficial Societies that cannot switch out of the investment-based strategy, however, fail to converge to the world technology frontier Non-convergence traps are more likely when policies and institutions are endogenized, enabling beneficiaries of existing policies to bribe politicians to maintain these policies

Distance to Frontier, Selection, and Economic Growth

Many writers have claimed that research and development (R&D) has two faces. In addition to the conventional role of stimulating innovation, R&D enhances technology transfer (absorptive capacity). We explore this idea empirically using a panel of industries across twelve OECD countries. We find R&D to be statistically and economically important in both technological catch-up and innovation. Human capital also plays an major role in productivity growth, but we only find a small effect of trade. In failing to take account of R&D-based absorptive capacity, existing U.S.-based studies may underestimate the return to R&D.

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Mapping the Two Faces of R&D: Productivity Growth in a Panel of OECD Industries

Endogenous-growth theory suggests that technological change tends to reinforce the position of the leading nations. Yet sometimes this leadership role shifts. The authors suggest a mechanism that explains this pattern of 'leapfrogging' as a response to occasional major changes in technology. When such a change occurs, the new technology does not initially seem to be an improvement for leading nations, given their extensive experience with older technologies. Lagging nations have less experience; the new technique allows them to use their lower wages to enter the market. If the new technique proves more productive than the old, leapfrogging of leadership occurs. Copyright 1993 by American Economic Association.

Leapfrogging in international competition: A theory of cycles in national technological leadership

Much recent work has suggested that endogenous technological change tends to reinforce the position of the leading nations. Yet from time to time this leadership role shifts. We suggest a mechanism that explains this pattern of -leapfrogging- as a response to occasional major changes in technology. When such a change occurs, leading nations may have no incentive to adopt the new ideas; given their extensive experience with older technologies, the new ideas do not initially seem to be an improvement. Lagging nations, however, have less experience; the new techniques offer them an opportunity to use their lower wages, to break into the market. If the new techniques eventually prove to be more productive than the old, there is a reversal of leadership.

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Leapfrogging: A Theory of Cycles in National Technological Leadership

The aim of this paper is to examine the evolution of recruitment of elites and to investigate the nature of the links between recruitment of elites and economic growth. The main change that occurred in the way the Western world trained its elites is that meritocracy became the basis for their recruitment. Although meritocratic selection should result in the best being chosen, we show that meritocratic recruitment actually leads to class stratification and auto-recruitment. We analyze the consequences of stratification resulting from meritocratic selection for the development of a country, and show that these consequences are dependent upon the type of technological changes occurring in the country.

The Role of Higher Education Institutions: Recruitment of Elites and Economic Growth

During times of major technological change, leadingcities are often overtaken by upstart metropolitan areas. Suchupheavals may be explained if the advantage of established urbancenters rests on localized learning by doing. When a new technologyis introduced, for which this accumulated experience is irrelevant,older centers prefer to stay with a technology in which theyare more efficient. New centers, however, turn to the new technologyand are competitive despite the raw state of that technologybecause of their lower land rents and wages. Over time, as thenew technology matures, the established cities are overtaken.

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Technology and the Life Cycle of Cities

In the traditional history of the British industrial revolution, much emphasis has been placed on the role of saving in capital formation. The theories emphasizing the role of saving are based on the premise that saving was the only way to finance investment; the literature has omitted foreign sources of investment. Therefore, many controversies regarding the industrial revolution omit the role of capital flows: the arguments about Rostow's take-off are based on the rise in the domestic saving rate;2 the debate on constraints on the rate of capital accumulation is linked to the relation between saving and investment; and Williamson's argument on crowding out is based on asserting that 'saving significantly constrained British accumulation'.3 However, in an open economy, net flows of capital provide finance for investment in addition to domestic saving. Crafts has emphasized that this way of financing capital formation during the first stages of industrial development is unique: 'countries with the same per capita income as Britain in the eighteenth century were experiencing a considerable inflow of capital'.4 Indeed, development economists have long shown the importance of foreign capital in the industrialization and development process: 'external borrowing is a normal feature of the development strategies of many countries' 5 Britain's unique way of financing its capital formation was assumed rather than proved. The assumption that domestic saving was equated with domestic investment is puzzling since the flow of capital from Holland to Great Britain, particularly in the second half of the eighteenth century, is

Elise S. Brezis

Papers

Leapfrogging in international competition: A theory of cycles in national technological leadership

Leapfrogging: A Theory of Cycles in National Technological Leadership

The Role of Higher Education Institutions: Recruitment of Elites and Economic Growth

Technology and the Life Cycle of Cities

Foreign capital flows in the century of Britain's industrial revolution: new estimates, controlled conjectures