SOCIETY AND ECONOMY: A REVIEW ARTICLE
| Published date | 01 November 1981 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1981.tb00095.x |
| Author | David Austen‐Smith |
| Date | 01 November 1981 |
Scottkh
Jowdof
PdiIicdEconomy,
Vol.
28,
No.
3,
Novrmber
1981
0
1981
Longman
Group
Limited
0036-9292/sl/00260291 S02.00
Review
Section
SOCIETY
AND ECONOMY: A REVIEW
ARTICLE
DAVID
AUSTEN-SMITH
University
of
York
R. A. EASTERLIN,
Birth
and
Fortune: The
Impact
of
Numbers
on
Personal Weljiie,
Grant
McIntyre,
1980,
pp.
205, €9.95
hard cover,
€4.95
paperback.
M.
GASKIN
(ed.),
The Political Economy
of
Tolerable Survival,
Croom Helm,
1981,
pp.
220,
€12.95.
L.
C.
THUUOW,
The
Zero-Sum Society,
Harper
and Row,
1980,
pp.
230, €7.95.
These three books share a common concern
with wide-ranging and broad social issues.
In
the first instance, however, it is useful to
distinguish the
books
by Easterlin and Thurow
from that
of
Gaskin. There are two reasons for
this. First, both Easterlin and Thurow develop
explanations for a variety of seemingly dis-
parate problems from a single, relatively
straightforward hypothesis-in Easterlin, the
hypothesis is based
on
generation sue; while
Thurow finds his proposition in distributional
conflict. In contrast, the collection
of
eleven
essays edited by Gaskin contains almost as
many approaches
as
it does chapters. And the
second reason is simply that the principal focus
of
Gaskin’s book is the British economy, while
Easterlin and Thurow are preoccupied with
the USA.
Richard Easterlin is interested in the in-
fluence generation
size
per
se
exerts upon the
fortunes
of
members of the generation. The
term “generation” has
a
more-or-less restricted
meaning in the text.
On
page
3
we are told that
“generation” means “a group of persons born
in a particular year”. This definition is widened
by page
7
as
follows
:
“A
generation, as
I
define
it, is what demographers. .
.
mean by
a
‘birth
cohort’. .
. .
Neither term
needs
to be confined
to a single year.” Despite this slippage,
Easterlin’s intention throughout
is
clear
:
his
“primary interest.. . is in the conditions specific
to the group whose number is changing-what
are called ‘age-specific’ effects” (p.
6).
Such
effects are to be distinguished from “age com-
position” effects-those deriving from the
changing balance of young and old across
society. The concern, then, is with age-specific
effects on intragenerational members’ fortunes.
And
as
narrow as is Easterlin’s
use
of
“gener-
ation’’, his use
of
“fortunes” is broad. This term
ranges from economic reward and stagflation,
through marriage prospects and crime, to the
likelihoods of suicide, political alienation and
headaches! The key variable linking gener-
ation
size
to individual fortunes is a new
concept
of
relative income. Easterlin’s strategy
is to examine how generation
size
affects this
concept, and then to use it to help explain the
wide variety
of
“fortunes” in which he is
interested. Although the concept itself is not
introduced until chapter
3
on “Marriage and
Childbearing”, chapter
2
implicitly presents
the core
of
the argument relating generation
size to this notion of relative income. However,
1
propose to leave discussion
of
this earlier
chapter for the moment.
Easterlin’s notion of relative income is de-
fined initially as the ratio
of
“Earnings poten-
tial ofcouple [husband and wifey to “Material
aspirations of couple” (p.
42).
This is im-
mediately operationalized by approximating
the numerator by “Recent income experience
of young man”; and the denominator by “Past
income
of
young man’s parents” (p.
42).
(The
emphasis on “young man“ here is deliberate
and justified by Easterlin through appeal to
American survey data, indicating first that
female emancipation from the classic stereo-
type is negligible; and second, that people in
general marry into the same economic class as
themselves.) There is an immediate conceptual
problem with this particular approximation
:
while “Past income of young man’s parents” is
to all intents and purposes,
a
given fact, it
seems
29
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