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From:
[log in to unmask] (Sumitra Shah)
Date:
Thu Apr 26 10:23:43 2007
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Sebastiano Nerozzi wrote:
"I would like to know something about Adam Smith and the family, both
under the point of view of moral philosophy and of economics.
I found much literature on Smith and Women (Rendall 1987, Sutherland
1995, Folbre 1991, Nyland 1993, Nyland and Dimand 2003) but almost
nothing focusing on the subject of the family and household production.
May you give me some advice in this field?"

The reason you are frustrated about not finding Smith's views on family and
household production in Adam Smith is that he did not write much about them. 
The references you quote are excellent. But Smith's ideas about the family, 
especially marriage, are found in his  _Lectures on Jurisprudence_  , referred 
to as Report of 1762-3. Here he traces the evolution of the institution of 
marriage in the West and provides comparative analysis vis-a -vis  other 
societies. 

For Smith's scant writings on household production, you will find a critique 
in: Pujol, M. A. (1992)  _Feminism and Anti-Feminism in Early Economic Thought_.
(Aldershot U. K. and  Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar). In a similar vein, I 
explore this lacuna in the Smithian system of though in: “Sexual Division of 
Labor in Adam Smith’s Work”, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Volume 
28, Number 2, June 2006.

Sumitra Shah


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