The Concept of Care in Institutional and Feminist Economics and Its Impact on Public Policy

Abstract:

Economic activity takes place within an institutional framework. The economy, like society, represents a complex of institutions, ranging from the smallest, such as the family, to the largest and most comprehensive, the state (Chavance 2009). Institutional economics offers a broad perspective that brings forward the concept of gender, since gender is a fundamental organizing principle of institutions (Jacobsen 2003). A focus on social provisioning, typical for both feminist as well as institutional economists, leads to a broader understanding of economic activity. This broader approach includes activities like caring and care labor that cannot be entirely understood in terms of individual choices. In this paper, I explore the relationships between care and the economy from the perspective of neoclassical, institutional, and feminist economic theory. Economic theories are a basis for public policies that have a major impact on people’s lives. I argue that changing the dominating economic perspective into feminist-institutional one would improve the situation of care providers, who would, in turn, contribute to the development of society and the economy.

Keywords::

• care
• caring labor
• feminist economics
• institutional economics

JEL Classification Codes::

• B52
• B54

Notes

¹ This model of a family life centered on private household-based activity for women was a middle class ideal adopted by those with sufficient income to be able to dispense with a wife’s labor in the family business. By the end of the nineteenth century, it had become an accepted aspiration of the working class family, too (Himmelweit 1995, 10).

² Such an approach was widely criticized by feminist economists like Randy Albelda (1997, 118) and Jane Humphries (1998, 226).

³ According to Fred E. Foldvary (1996, 1), a school of thought could be defined as a group of scientists who adhere to a distinct body of beliefs, and as the set of beliefs of that group. A school of economic thought encompasses a methodology, a social philosophy and set of questions, a body of theory and research agenda, and a set of economic policy prescriptions.

⁴ Cited by Bernard Chavance (2009, 22).

⁵ As Susan Himmelweit (2005, 2) notes, in most developed economies, women with caring responsibilities form the single largest group of potential workers that are only partially integrated into the paid economy, although their labor force participation rates have been rising rapidly.

⁶ This helped to explain both the marginalization of women’s economic contribution and the neglect of the caring domain.

⁷ For more on care-producing externalities, leading to reconstructing care as a public good, see Nancy Folbre (1994, 1995, 2004, 2006).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Zachorowska-Mazurkiewicz

Anna Zachorowska-Mazurkiewicz is an assistant professor at the Jagiellonian University (Poland). This article was written as part of an InnoGend project funded by Norway Grants in the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme operated by the National Centre for Research and Development.