Family economics

The family, although recognized as fundamental from Adam Smith on, received little systematic treatment in economics before the 1950s. A significant exception was Thomas Malthus's model of population growth. The work of Gary Becker, Jacob Mincer and their students initiated contemporary research on family economics with the application and extension of microeconomic theory and empirical methods. Later contributions include those of Theodore Bergstrom. Standard aspects include:
 * fertility and the demand for children in developed and developing countries
 * child health and mortality
 * interrelation and trade-off of 'quantity' and 'quality' of children through investment of time and other resources of parents
 * altruism in the family, including the rotten kid theorem
 * sexual division of labor, intra-household bargaining, and decision making through the household production function and outside the household.
 * mate selection, search costs, marriage, divorce, and imperfect information
 * family background and opportunities of children
 * intergenerational mobility and inequality, including the bequest motive.
 * human capital, social security, and the rise and fall of families
 * macroeconomics of the family.