title: Economic approaches to understanding families.
abstract: The economic approach helps explain the enormous changes in fertility, marriage, divorce, and human capital of families during the past 50 years. Large challenges remain to explain below-replacement fertility in over 60 countries and the consequences of such low birth rates for economic growth and other issues.
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, 1226 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. gbecker@midway.uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Gary S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Becker
mesh_terms: D004243:Divorce; D005190:Family; D005298:Fertility; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors