Title:A Survey of Theories of the Family 

Latest revision(June, 1995)

Institution: University of Michigan, Dept of Economics
WPA References: None
Comments: Postscript file submitted via ftp in compressed format.
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This survey was written for the forthcoming Handbook in Population Economics.

The first section of this review explores the
theory of household technology and the associated
possibilities for distributiing utility among
household members.  The second section concerns
decision theory within the household.  This discussion
draws on standard consumer decision theory.
 The third section of this paper deals with an equilbrium
in which families are formed by persons voluntarily
choosing mates. This theory is analogous to ``Tiebout
theory'' in urban economics, where the objects of
choice include not only the amount of public goods
supplied in each city, but which individuals live in each
place. An aspect of family life that has fewer parallels
in the economics of market economies is intrafamilial
love and altruism.  The final section of this paper
reviews a growing theoretical literature on love,
altruism and the family.