IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulp/sbbeta/2022-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Families and Women in Alfred Marshall’s Analysis of Well-being and Progress

Author

Listed:
  • Virginie Gouverneur

Abstract

Some commentators state that Marshall conceptualizes the well-being primarily in terms of the consumer’s surpluses, whose interdependence with the moral character rests on the ability of markets to produce their effects on character spontaneously. The purpose of the article is to show that evolutionary faith is not really enough to remove the tension between the economic and moral dimensions of Marshall’s definition of the well-being. Marshall understands that progress would not happen without assigning a peculiar role to families and women in cultivating family affections as an essential means to secure the link between these two dimensions. To prove this point, the article examines several economic texts written before Marshall’s major economic book, Principles of Economics, the first edition of which appeared in 1890. These writings have received little consideration in the existing literature about Marshall’s treatment of the role of women in a capitalist economy. Yet, they prefigure and allow to better understanding the theory expounded in Principles.

Suggested Citation

  • Virginie Gouverneur, 2022. "Families and Women in Alfred Marshall’s Analysis of Well-being and Progress," Working Papers of BETA 2022-35, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2022-35
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2022/2022-35.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Talcott Parsons, 1931. "Wants and Activities in Marshall," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 46(1), pages 101-140.
    2. Mill, John Stuart, 1848. "Principles of Political Economy (II): Distribution," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 2, number mill1848-2.
    3. Nishizawa, Tamotsu, 2002. "Alfred Marshall on Human Capital and Future Generations," Economic Review, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 53(4), pages 305-321, October.
    4. Virginie Gouverneur, 2013. "Mill versus Jevons on traditional sexual division of labour: Is gender equality efficient?," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 741-775, October.
    5. Peter Groenewegen, 1995. "A SOARING EAGLE: Alfred Marshall 1842–1924," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 193, March.
    6. Mill, John Stuart, 1848. "Principles of Political Economy (III): Exchange," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 3, number mill1848-3.
    7. David Brennan, 2006. "Defending The Indefensible? Culture'S Role In The Productive/Unproductive Dichotomy," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 403-425.
    8. Antoinette Baujard, 2021. "Values in Welfare economics," Working Papers halshs-03244909, HAL.
    9. Mill, John Stuart, 1848. "Principles of Political Economy (I): Production," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 1, number mill1848-1.
    10. Miriam Bankovsky, 2019. "Alfred Marshall’s household economics: the role of the family in cultivating an ethical capitalism," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(1), pages 249-267.
    11. Miriam Bankovsky, 2020. "A history of early household economics: Improving the family’s contribution to industrial production and rationalizing family consumption," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(4), pages 985-1005.
    12. Backhouse,Roger E. & Baujard,Antoinette & Nishizawa,Tamotsu (ed.), 2021. "Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108841450, January.
    13. Michèle A. Pujol, 1992. "Feminism And Anti-Feminism In Early Economic Thought," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 362, March.
    14. Miriam Bankovsky, 2019. "Alfred Marshall’s household economics: the role of the family in cultivating an ethical capitalism," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(1), pages 269-269.
    15. Mill, John Stuart, 1848. "Principles of Political Economy (V): On the Influence of Government," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 5, number mill1848-5.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Virginie Gouverneur, 2021. "Family and Women in Alfred Marshall’s Analysis of Progress and Well-being," Working Papers of BETA 2021-03, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    2. Virginie Gouverneur, 2021. "Family and Women in Alfred Marshall’s Analysis of Progress and Well-being," Working Papers 02-21, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    3. Ian Keay, 2019. "Protection for maturing industries: Evidence from Canadian trade patterns and trade policy, 1870–1913," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 1464-1496, November.
    4. Jacobsen, Catrine & Piovesan, Marco, 2016. "Tax me if you can: An artifactual field experiment on dishonesty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 7-14.
    5. Tsoulfidis, Lefteris & Alexiou, Constantinos & Parthenidis, Thanasis, 2015. "Revisiting profit persistence and the stock market in Japan," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 10-24.
    6. Jerry Kirkpatrick, 2004. "Reisman's Net Consumption, Net Investment Theory of Aggregate Profit," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 627-646, July.
    7. Roy, Saktinil & Kemme, David M., 2020. "The run-up to the global financial crisis: A longer historical view of financial liberalization, capital inflows, and asset bubbles," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. B. Ravikumar & Raymond Riezman & Yuzhe Zhang, 2022. "Private Information and Optimal Infant Industry Protection," Working Papers 2022-013, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 18 Apr 2024.
    9. Han Gao & Mariano Kulish & Juan Pablo Nicolini, 2020. "Two Illustrations of the Quantity Theory of Money Reloaded," Working Papers 774, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    10. Leeson, Peter T., 2007. "Better off stateless: Somalia before and after government collapse," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 689-710, December.
    11. Wu, Yiyun & Zhu, Xiwei & Groenewold, Nicolaas, 2019. "The determinants and effectiveness of industrial policy in china: A study based on Five-Year Plans," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 225-242.
    12. Kuś Agnieszka, 2020. "The Importance of Innovation in the Development of Polish Business Gazelles," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 28(1), pages 32-51, March.
    13. Rosolino A. Candela & Vincent J. Geloso, 2020. "The Lighthouse Debate and the Dynamics of Interventionism," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 289-314, September.
    14. V. A. Mau, 2022. "Trends in Economic Science: Discussions of the Paths of Russian Modernization in the 19th–20th Centuries," Studies on Russian Economic Development, Springer, vol. 33(5), pages 506-512, October.
    15. Zhao, Jiaxin & Mattauch, Linus, 2022. "When standards have better distributional consequences than carbon taxes," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    16. Ariel Goldszmidt & John A. List & Robert D. Metcalfe & Ian Muir & V. Kerry Smith & Jenny Wang, 2020. "The Value of Time in the United States: Estimates from Nationwide Natural Field Experiments," Working Papers 2020-179, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    17. Prabirjit Sarkar, 2001. "The North-South terms of trade debate: a re-examination," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 1(4), pages 309-327, October.
    18. Heindl, Peter & Löschel, Andreas, 2015. "Social implications of green growth policies from the perspective of energy sector reform and its impact on households," CAWM Discussion Papers 81, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    19. Sergio Tezanos V�zquez, 2015. "Distributive Justice in Aid for Development," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 310-329, September.
    20. Jon D. Wisman & Kevin W. Capehart, 2010. "Creative Destruction, Economic Insecurity, Stress, and Epidemic Obesity," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 936-982, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Alfred Marshall; family environment; women’s role; well-being; progress.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian, Wicksellian)
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2022-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask the person in charge to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bestrfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.