TY  - JOUR
AU  - Smith,James P.
TI  - A Life Cycle Family Model
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5
PY  - 1973
Y2  - July 1973
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0005
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0005.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
James P. Smith
RAND Corporation
1776 Main Street
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138
Tel: 310-451-6925
E-Mail: smith@rand.org
AB  - The household production model provides a useful theoretical framework in which one may analyze family labor supply issues.  In this model, the family is viewed as if it were a small firm producing its ultimate wants within the household.  In order to satisfy these wants, the family (firm) combines purchased market goods and services with the time of various family members.  This approach differs from the traditional treatment of the labor-leisure choice decision since the price of any activity now has two components – the goods price and the time price of each family member.  The relative empirical importance of the two components depends, of course, on their respective shares in the cost of producing an activity.
ER  -