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Love & Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse's pivotal book on the family.From the “I wrote Love and Economics in the late 1990’s. My experience of raising a badly neglected adopted orphan son together with a birth daughter taught me that we economists had been taking the family far too much for granted…. Love and Economics makes a foundational argument that the family is an irreplaceable social institution. We cannot replace the married couple with a series of contracts among adults, as some libertarians and economists might argue. Nor can we replace the family with a series of government programs…. I hope that everyone who values the personal over the political and the family over the bureaucratic, will take the arguments of Love and Economics seriously.”
331 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2001
8 people are currently reading
229 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Roback Morse
12 books24 followersJennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is the founder and President of the Ruth Institute — a project of the National Organization for Marriage — which seeks to promote life-long married love to college students by creating an intellectual and social climate favorable to marriage.
She is also the Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.
She is the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World, (2005) and Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn’t Work (2001), recently reissued in paperback, as Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.
Dr. Morse served as a Research Fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution from 1997-2005. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester in 1980 and spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Chicago during 1979-80. She taught economics at Yale University and George Mason University for 15 years. She was John M. Olin visiting scholar at the Cornell Law School in fall 1993. She is a regular contributor to the National Review Online, National Catholic Register, Town Hall, MercatorNet and To the Source.
fan pageDr. Morse’s scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, Economic Inquiry, the Journal of Economic History, Publius: the Journal of Federalism, the University of Chicago Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Social Philosophy and Policy, The Independent Review, and The Notre Dame Journal of Law Ethics and Public Policy.
In April 2008, Dr. Morse presented at the Harvard conference, “The Legacy and Future of Feminism.” In July 2006, Dr. Morse was one of the few Americans who lectured at the Fifth Annual Meeting of Families in Valencia Spain, sponsored by the Pontifical Council on the Family. Dr. Morse lectured in Rome in April 1997 and in January 2006 at Acton Institute conferences celebrating the Papal encyclical, Centesimus Annus. Her public policy articles have appeared in Forbes, Policy Review,The American Enterprise, Fortune, Reason, the Wall Street Journal, Vital Speeches, and Religion and Liberty.
She currently lives in San Diego, CA. She and her husband are the parents of a birth child, an adopted child. From March 2003 to August 2006, Dr. Morse and her husband were foster parents for San Diego County. During that time, they cared for a total of eight foster children.
She is also the Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.
She is the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World, (2005) and Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn’t Work (2001), recently reissued in paperback, as Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.
Dr. Morse served as a Research Fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution from 1997-2005. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester in 1980 and spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Chicago during 1979-80. She taught economics at Yale University and George Mason University for 15 years. She was John M. Olin visiting scholar at the Cornell Law School in fall 1993. She is a regular contributor to the National Review Online, National Catholic Register, Town Hall, MercatorNet and To the Source.
fan pageDr. Morse’s scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, Economic Inquiry, the Journal of Economic History, Publius: the Journal of Federalism, the University of Chicago Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Social Philosophy and Policy, The Independent Review, and The Notre Dame Journal of Law Ethics and Public Policy.
In April 2008, Dr. Morse presented at the Harvard conference, “The Legacy and Future of Feminism.” In July 2006, Dr. Morse was one of the few Americans who lectured at the Fifth Annual Meeting of Families in Valencia Spain, sponsored by the Pontifical Council on the Family. Dr. Morse lectured in Rome in April 1997 and in January 2006 at Acton Institute conferences celebrating the Papal encyclical, Centesimus Annus. Her public policy articles have appeared in Forbes, Policy Review,The American Enterprise, Fortune, Reason, the Wall Street Journal, Vital Speeches, and Religion and Liberty.
She currently lives in San Diego, CA. She and her husband are the parents of a birth child, an adopted child. From March 2003 to August 2006, Dr. Morse and her husband were foster parents for San Diego County. During that time, they cared for a total of eight foster children.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 11, 2013
Families matter for economics because that's where savages (children) become civilized.
July 15, 2022
“The increasing institutionalization of child rearing
has transferred authority from the relatively inarticulate but
committed parent to the articulate but uncommitted expert.”
has transferred authority from the relatively inarticulate but
committed parent to the articulate but uncommitted expert.”
February 20, 2020
I don't even know how I found this book or what circle it was recommended in. But it started off very academic. Very heavy in economics and political science and academic writings. It felt like she was arguing with libertarians why the libertarian philosophy isn't the answer to every single thing even though she considers herself libertarian.
The good news is, every statement is backed up by research and well cited. Parts of it are hard to get through. But I appreciated the point that in order to fix the economic and political conflict in the world, you need to start by supporting families. And the way to do that is to set an example of love because you can't force people to be better you can just love and inspire.
It was interesting reading the way she approaches love and the research behind how people become the way they do. And it made me want to discuss it but I can't find the people who recommended it to me.
Summary: slow, heavy read, but fascinating. And she will offend people with some of her conclusions. But still interesting.
The good news is, every statement is backed up by research and well cited. Parts of it are hard to get through. But I appreciated the point that in order to fix the economic and political conflict in the world, you need to start by supporting families. And the way to do that is to set an example of love because you can't force people to be better you can just love and inspire.
It was interesting reading the way she approaches love and the research behind how people become the way they do. And it made me want to discuss it but I can't find the people who recommended it to me.
Summary: slow, heavy read, but fascinating. And she will offend people with some of her conclusions. But still interesting.
June 13, 2020
I appreciated the aim of this work: to use economic and political principles to discuss the value of stable families in a democracy. Someone must teach children self-restraint. Someone must pass on values. This is done inside the family. And the benefits to society of stable, loving families are far reaching. This used to be obvious. Not anymore. I usually read books that encourage this behavior from a biblical perspective, while she does appeal to a belief in God toward the end of the book, the majority of her work is focused on other appeals to authorities.
April 14, 2009
It's hard knowing how to mark this book. I like what the author was trying to do, but I found this book a tough, dense, overly theoretical read. I'm not sure what I was hoping for, but I had to force myself to finish this one. The author was attempting to provide a theoretical framework for choosing to devote resources to family life in a libertarian political/economic framework. WHY is it rational for me to leave graduate school to stay home and devote myself to three kids when many economists and libertarians might say I'm wasting my time, others can care for my kids while I go out and produce something worthwhile. Naturally, I think I AM producing something worthwhile--and so does the author.
One thing I did especially like was Morse's argument that a free, liberatarian society NEEDS strong, well-established families. A quote:
But family structure is an area in which unlimited freedom of action may very well be in conflict with minimal government, for the minimal state cannot exist without a substantial component of self-restraint and self-government within the citizenry. This internalized ethic cannot come into existence in the absence of loving families taking personal care of their own children.
Good ideas, tough read.
One thing I did especially like was Morse's argument that a free, liberatarian society NEEDS strong, well-established families. A quote:
But family structure is an area in which unlimited freedom of action may very well be in conflict with minimal government, for the minimal state cannot exist without a substantial component of self-restraint and self-government within the citizenry. This internalized ethic cannot come into existence in the absence of loving families taking personal care of their own children.
Good ideas, tough read.
September 17, 2008
This is an economics based look at the importance of the family to a healthy free enterprise system. This author documents the often ignored contributions to the well being of our economy that are the direct result of healthy traditional families.
An EXCELLENT must read for women's issues.
An EXCELLENT must read for women's issues.
July 30, 2012
Some very interesting perspectives on the role of the family as a unit of society and the responsibilities that families should engage in rearing children.
April 25, 2014
This is the way to critique "consumerism" and provide a Christian way forward.
January 18, 2016
It was enjoyable to watch a libertarian economist struggle with the diffination of Love.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews