Economics and Family Structures

Working Papers ECARES • Vol/Iss. 2021-21 • Université Libre de Bruxelles • Brussels • Published In • Pages: 1-39 •
By Baudin, Thomas, De Rock, Bram, Gobbi, Paula Eugenia

Abstract

Through review of the economic literature and cross-cultural analysis of families (nuclear, stem, and complex), the authors show that family type is heterogeneous and argue that types other than nuclear have been largely ignored by economists. They encourage, based on their findings, further research on family structure and the development of better models for household decision making. They use ancestral populations in the ethnographic record to estimate country-level family patterns.
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: anj.droe