Abstract: A picture of the circular flow of commodities and money through markets features prominently in most introductory economics texts. The circular flow of intra-family and inter-generational transfers of time and money outside the market has historically gotten far less attention, but is now gaining visibility, thanks to the work of Ron Lee, Pieter Vanhuysse and others. This presentation will briefly summarize different approaches to the decision-making processes that influence non-market transfers, including Paul Samuelson’s overlapping generations model and Gary Becker’s dynastic utility function. However, I will argue that intergenerational and inter-gender transfers are largely shaped by implicit contracts embedded in social institutions that are difficult to enforce and significantly influenced by the collective bargaining of complex coalitions based on age, gender, race, class, and citizenship. There is little reason to believe that these implicit contracts are either efficient or equitable and we should think harder about how best to “renegotiate” them.
The CPop/ DaWS Interdisciplinary Lecture Series on Care and Intergenerational Justice are organized by the Societies and Demographic Change section at the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies and the Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics at the University of Southern Denmark. They bring together world-leading researchers to discuss new ways of understanding and addressing the challenges of implementing just care systems.
For additional information and information about registration please contact Lars Henrik Pedersen.