How are we to make sense of these radical alterations in our social fabric? How can we use the masses of data assembled by the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Center for Health Statistics, and other agencies to get some understanding of why things are happening, as well as what is happening?
This is not purely an intellectual exercise, fascinating as that might be. We need this understanding because inevitably we all face decisions concerning these phenomena. We must make decisions as family members and breadwinners and as participants in community organizations. Many of us also give advice in these areas as physicians, lawyers, teachers, social workers, clergy, and other professionals. Business executives need to be familiar with these trends in order to adapt goods and services to changing markets and to develop new personnel policies more appropriate to emerging life styles. And officials in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government constantly face difficult choices in these areas. Clearly, a deeper understanding of the changes that have occurred over time as well as of current intergroup differences in behavior can contribute to better private choices and more effective public policies.
The phenomena that it deals with are not solely economic, and economics alone cannot provide a complete explanation of theme They all have an economic dimension, however, and can be more fully understood when approached from an economic point of view. In the following chapters we will look at the significant changes that have occurred since World War II in family life, work, health, and education, The book synthesizes recent research in these areas, drawing on the results of my colleagues at the National Bureau of Economic Research, other social scientists, and my own studies in health and labor economics. I will also identify and discuss major public policy issues that affect men and women at various stages of the life cycle from birth to death.
As we consider each stage of life, many subjects are presented in varying degrees of detail. A. few themes, however, appear almost every time. Probably the most central is the usefulness of viewing broad national trends as the result of choices made by individuals in response to changes in their external circumstances. These changes may involve a rise or fall in income or changes in the prices of goods and services; they may be technological, such as improvements in contraception; or they may be demographic, such as increases in life expectancy. Economics provides a relatively simple and broadly applicable method of analyzing the way in which circumstances affect choices. It is, therefore, a powerful tool for building an understanding of changes in human behavior and social institutions.