Who Pays for the Kids? Gender and the Structures of Constraint (1994) In this book, Folbre discusses how women's transition from the role of primary providers of care work to market-related production presents women with dilemmas. Even with women entering the paid labor force in growing numbers, they are still expected to perform most of the unpaid domestic labor. Women must choose how to divide their time between personal development and fulfillment and the expectations imposed by social norms. An increasing number of single mothers struggle with little or no support from estranged fathers, and while government subsidies may be available, they often only account for a portion of the support that once took place within families. Folbre analyzes this situation through three major foci. First, she attempts to show that mainstream economics have failed to provide adequate models to explain relations between parents and children in terms of development, conflict and social welfare. She suggests that economists should pay less attention to mere accounting of production and more on social reproduction. Second, Folbre explores how a shift in the investment of time and resources toward children might result in losses for other groups. Understanding and addressing these conflicts between groups might lead to more efficient and satisfying means to providing care of children and the elderly. Finally, she examines what history has to say about the collective struggles over the costs of
social reproduction.
The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (2000) Along with James Heintz and other contributors from the Center for Popular Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Folbre and her co-authors use wit and wisdom to expose the misconceptions about and uncover the realities of the U.S. economy. Each page addresses a single issue or concept that is accompanied by a cartoon or other artwork. While the book is written in simple, jargon-free language, the authors also have included a detailed glossary to help readers navigate through the economics terminology. This highly accessible book covers a wide spectrum of topics, including race and gender inequalities, labor issues, education, welfare, health government spending.
The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (2001) Measuring the value of care work is principally difficult because relationships of care are partly exchange transactions, and partly transactions involving what Folbre calls "the invisible heart." This metaphor represents
family values of love and economic reciprocity, which she contrasts with
Adam Smith's "invisible hand," in which the market forces of supply and demand exist alongside the pursuit of self-interest. While the forces of the free market and competitive individualism dominates public life, the forces of compassion must temper the forces of self-interest. Under the premise that people are rational optimizers, Folbre argues that if it is costly to be caring, people can be expected to engage in it less over time. If the
opportunity cost of devoting time to family over a career is perceived to be high, or if proving care for the poor or sick pays poorly, then rational decision-makers will increasingly come to avoid care work. Folbre applauds the rising autonomy of women but argues that if we don't establish thoughtful rules defining our collective responsibilities for caregiving, the penalties suffered by the needy will increase. Intensified economic competition may drive altruism and families out of business. The book is divided into three sections, in which Folbre explores a wide range of issues, from the view of the housekeeping state to the rights of pregnant workers in Mexico. Using a storytelling voice, she tells a sequence of wonderful stories of her own extended family and acquaintances in San Antonio. Folbre views corporations as profit-obsessed and corrupt tyrants and often sees governments as bloated bureaucratic regimes that serve few and punish the poor. While regressive taxation assures that some will be able to afford more care than others, unequal school funding guarantees class inequality. Folbre compares the traditional role of women with the more contemporary career-oriented position of women. Where women have traditionally provided care within the home, this responsibility is slowly transitioning to third parties and corporate institutions. Profit motives will tend to drive the wages of care workers down. She notes that turnover rates among childcare staff are often in excess of 30 percent per year. According to Folbre, such under-provision of quality care is due to the mismatch between care's relational and public-good nature, as well as an economic system that stresses competition and individuality. Folbre argues that radical changes to the way Americans live and work, democratic control of the economy, as well as a dramatic
redistribution of wealth will strengthen the ethic of solidarity and social reciprocity. She concludes with a resounding call—to extend family values to society as a whole—and a series of policy proposals for increasing both the quality and the recognition of care.
Family Time: The Social Organization of Care (2004) Edited by Nancy Folbre and
Michael Bittman, this book contains a collection of eleven essays discussing a variety of topics related to child and elder care. Folbre's contributions include an introduction and three co-authored chapters. In her article entitled "A theory of the misallocation of time" (a play upon
Gary Becker's article of a similar title), Folbre critiques Becker's neoclassical theory of gender specialization in the household. She also co-authors two additional chapters regarding the measurement of parental childcare time and nonparental care.
Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family (2008) In this book, Folbre discusses the costs of raising children, the value of child care to the economy, and how these costs are borne by society. She challenges the implicit view of mainstream economists who effectively view the raising of children as a process of consumption in which parents can derive happiness and how this view ignores the fact that children become the workers and taxpayers of the next generation. She argues that the time investment mothers make offers significant rewards in the reproduction of labor, and because of this, public policy should be designed to align private and public resources in promoting efficient commitments to the next generation. Folbre considers ways to improve the accounting of the economic value of raising children and how the current methods of calculating the economic cost of having children fail to capture the value of the time spent in care work. Folbre provides a surprising estimate of the value of parental time per child by asking what it would cost to purchase a comparable substitute for it. Yet she also argues that, as part of the non-market sector, care work is economically undervalued by simply utilizing its replacement cost.
Greed, Lust and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas (2009) Written shortly after the financial crash of 2008, Folbre explores how the boundaries between the pursuit of self-interest and immorality have become blurred. She argues that the mentality espoused by Oliver Stone's character
Gordon Gekko that "
greed is good," helped lead to the
2008 financial crisis and persists in its wake. Yet, the same social norms that consider aggression, greed and lust an advantage to men in public life also view such things as perverse in women. Folbre argues that this double standard often puts aspiring women in a difficult position, which forces women to choose between their personal identity and the acceptance of the expected gender role. Folbre brings women's work, their sexuality, and their ideas into the center of the dialectic between economic history and the history of economic ideas. Her book describes a process of economic and cultural change in the United States, Great Britain and France that shaped the evolution of patriarchal capitalism and the welfare state. ==Selected journal articles==