The Political Economy of Care

What is care work and why is it important?

Where do motivations for care come from and what are their consequences?

How are motivations for care linked to changing social norms of masculinity and femininity?

Three Questions

The “care sector” of the economy has unique characteristics—both for workers and for consumers.

Shift from the family to themarket and the state has contradictory consequences for social inequalities and role of the welfare state. (a.k.a. dilemmas of patriarchal capitalism)

Motivations for a “care movement” --empowerment of women, fertility decline, but increased pressure on the quality of care services.

The American Heritage Dictionary gives two definitions of the verb that seem positive.

1. To be concerned or interested. 2. To provide needed assistance or watchful

supervision.

But as a noun, the definitions are rather negative:

1. A burdened state of mind, as that arising from heavy responsibilities; worry.

2. Mental suffering; grief.

To be concerned or interested, it seems, is to assume a burden.

cura    

soin

cuida

внимательность

zorg

προσοχή  

obacht

What is Care?

Care Work Defined

Direct care work involves provision of services to another person in aface-to-face orhands-on or first-name relationship that implies some emotional connection and concern for that person’s well being.

Direct care work can be paid or unpaid, market or non-market, male or female.

Recipients often dependents—but sometimes also healthy adults.

Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation:not a dichotomy, but a continuum.

Historical Trends and Stylized Facts

Increases in women’s labor force participation have been associated with adecline in time devoted to family care.

Many women have moved into paid provision of care—teaching, nursing, childcare and elder care.

Non-market work remains quantitatively significant in all the advanced industrial countries.

Homemakers Women in Homemakers asas % of all paid jobs as % of all workerswomen workers % of all women

workers

1870 70.2% 29.8% 40.1%1900 64.4 35.6 35.61930 59.7 40.3 34.11960 56.0 44.0 29.11990 32.7 67.3 22.02000 29.5 70.5 16.4

The Decline of Full-time Homemaking in the U.S., 1870-2000

Professional Domestic Agriculture Manufacturing,Care and Personal Fishing Mechanical, andServices Services Forestry Construction

1870 -- -- 53.5% 22.7%1900 4.0% 9.3% 37.6 30.11930 7.1 10.7 21.7 31.61960 11.9 6.6 9.4 31.41990 17.6 4.0 2.8 25.11998 19.2 3.4 2.7 22.7

The Rise of Professional Care Service Industries in the United States

(Employment by Industry as a Percentage of Total Employment)

Love, obligation, reciprocity, and pay—all sources of “utility.”

Norms and preferences of care may be influenced by biology but they are also socially constructed and at least partially endogenous.

Neither the workers who provide care (the “supply side”) nor the consumers whoreceive care (the “demand” side) behave in ways that fit the traditional model of

neoclassical economic theory.

Intrinsic AND extrinsic motivation.

Primarilyseekingpecuniaryreward

Reciprocity ormutualobligation

Motivated primarily byaffection andconcern

Certain of ownimpersonal needs

conventional market transactions

some informal tradeand barter

some charity,

volunteer work

e.g. food bank

Uncertain of own needs(infoproblems)

some market transactionsin health and education

some informal trade, barter

some paid

care of dependents

Needs personal connection (emo/warm glow)

some market transactions inhealth and education

friendships and intimate relationships among adults

paid and

unpaid care of

dependents

Worker Motivation

Consumers

Market Failures

limited consumer sovereignty(information problems, agency problems, monitoring problems)

social preferences (altruism and obligation)endogenous preferences (emotional stickiness, cultural construction)coordination problems externalities

“Care” Promises Quality

Intrinsically Motivated Care: Benefits for “Consumers” a.k.a. children, elderly, patients, students…

General:

High quality—long-term commitments and reduced need for monitoring;“incentive-enhancing preferences”

Low cost—resulting from “compensating differentials”

Specific:

In short run, inelastic response to risk of poverty, stress, pay reduction, speed-up, deterioration in working conditions, or reduction in “payoff”

Prisoners of Love

“I didn’t expect this and I didn’t want it, but my heart’s involved now.”

(A grandmother, describing her care for her grandson.)

“I love them. That’s all, you can’t help it.”

(Paid caregivers, describing their feelings toward many of their clients.)

The results rather more complicated than a “compensating differential.” Alone from night to night you’ll find me

Too weak to break the chains that bind me,I need no shackles to remind me,

I’m just a prisoner of love

lyrics by Leo Robin, 1931

Liabilities for Workers (primarily women)

General:

“Costly” preferences, reduced bargaining power (hold-up)

Specific:

Increases likelihood of paternal abandonment and patriarchal control.

Contributes to “double-day” for womenworking for pay.

Encourages occupational segregation and “pay penalty” in jobs that require nurturance

Coordination Problem

Specialization in caregiving is addictive and costly. Difficult to establishproperty rights over children or other public goods created by care. Bargainsnot enforceable;

Caregivers can anticipate and seek to reduce their vulnerability.

Origins of Patriarchal Systems

Patriarchal systems use physical force, property rights, and cultural norms toforce women to “overspecialize” in care.

Capitalism Slowly Weakens Patriarchy…

Wage employment isbased on individual market work, notfamily work

Both wage employment and fertilitydecline empower women. Women

engage incollectivepolitical action.

but Remains Dependent on It…

Caring for dependents cannotbe completely shifted to the market.

“Family wage” rules reinforcetraditional gender norms and encourage breadwinner/homemaker family.

The “welfare state” socializes at leastsome of the costs of caring for dependents.

The nation-state takes on many of theresponsibilities of the family: education,old-age security, and most recently, explicit subsidies for parents.

Capitalism Represents Itself as Masculine

And the “Nanny State” as Feminine

Capitalism liberates caregivers but penalizes care.

Women are offered an unpleasant choice: either take on disproportionate responsibilities for care, or don’t commit to caring relationships.

Meanwhile, competition among countries (and regions), as well as firms, create pressures to lower the cost of care.

“Welfare states” are described as soft, weak, and uncompetitive.

Family Policy: A Neoliberal Dilemma

Capitalist institutions need families but would prefer not to pay for them.

Coordination problem: how to preventfree-riding?

Note analogy with natural environment:e.g. capitalism needs a stable climate,but would prefer not to pay for that either.

International competition intensifies pressure to offload or externalize costs to non-market sectors.

Outsourcing?

Automation?

Changing Gender Norms

Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or stronglydisagree:

“It is better if the man is the achiever and the woman takescare of home and family.”

In 1977, 2/3 of Americans polled agreed.

In 1998, about 1/3 agreed.

Does Buffy ever babysit? Xena, Warrior Princess, frozen in ice for twenty years after her daughter was born.

Kill Bill 2. Motherhood demands accommodation. But, in general, avoiding care responsibilities is easier than…

Norms of masculinity are changing,albeit rather slowly.

Will labor market inequalities betweenmen and women be replaced byinequalities betweenparents and non-parents?

“Defamilialization”

Increases in women’s labor force participation have been associated with adecline in time devoted to family care.

Many women have moved into paid provision of care—teaching, nursing, childcare and elder care.

Movement away from intrinsic toward more extrinsic motivation.

Family care still quite important—what is likely to happen to it in the future?

“Marketization”

Good Bad

Efficiency(conventionally defined)

choice and competition;

economies of scale;

performance-based

rewards

limited substitutability;

reduced quality;

dependents lack

consumer sovereignty;

monitoring problems

Norms and Preferences

more gender

flexibility;

shift from quantity to quality of children

reduced supply of caring labor;

more vulnerability for dependents

Externalities fertility decline;

greater gender equality

below-replacement fertility

greater class/race inequality

Economic Implications of Defamilialization (and/or reduction in relative importance of intrinsic motivation)

Is there a way to reconfigure the care sector?

public provision shared care in homeempowerment of care workers