Our paper utilizes variation across the 50 U.S. states to examine the relationship between public expenditures on children and child outcomes. We find that public expenditures on children are related to better child outcomes across a wide range of indicators including measures of child...

The traditional neoclassical economic view that preferences are “inscrutable” and can only be revealed through behavior would, if true, make it difficult for altruists to make efficient decisions. We question whether altruism should be defined as a preference that can be revealed, or indeed,...

Women may have different norms and preferences than men because we have had different responsibilities. Gender differences may be based to some extent in biology as well as culture. Yet we have attained the power to change both biology and culture, along with the very meaning of femininity. I...

The Australian Time Use Survey of 1992 provides the best time-diary data available for testing hypotheses about the allocation of husbands' and wives' time to household labor in affluent societies. Our analysis isolates effects of spouses' relative contributions to household income. One finding...

Published in Feminist Economics, March 2001, 7(1): 25-44.